J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 



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The Bible Regained, 



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THE GOD OF THE BIBLE OURS; 



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%ty Sgsfem of lUIijjifltts ®n\t\ in <Bntlm. 



j 

By SAMUEL LEE. 



1 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have 
found the book of the law in the house of the Lord." 



BOSTON: 
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 

New York: 

LEE, SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM. 
1874. 



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<&*$ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, 

By SAMUEL LEE, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
No. 19 Spring Lane. 



DEDICATION. 



THAT SYMPATHY AND INTELLIGENT AID OF 

A BELOVED AND ONLY DAUGHTER, 

UPON WHICH WAS CONDITIONED THE PREPARATION OF THE 

FOLLOWING PAGES, 

MAKE IT MORE THAN THE PRIVILEGE OF PARENTAL 

GRATITUDE TO DEDICATE THE 

VOLUME TO 

SARAH FISKE LEE. 



PREFACE. 



The world is full of books, and thinking men are 
weary of ponderous volumes. They want books that 
are suggestive, and are willing themselves to do the 
thinking in detail. The writer of the following pages 
has kept this fact in mind. His object has been to 
present a system of religious truth in outline. He 
wishes to make the word " system " emphatic. He 
believes that all truth — truth relating to God, and 
the world he has made, and man his creature, and the 
divine government, providential and moral — all is a 
great whole, every part of which is in true and philo- 
sophical correlation to each and every other part. 
Also, that in the historic process in these materials 
for the attainment of their object, there are evinced, 
for the cognizance of man, certain great principles 
from which may be inferred the character of God — 
principles whose import is, " God is love," and every 
other element of his character is but a modification of 
this generic element. 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

Such parts of this system as are accepted by all 
evangelical Christians, are merely named as links of 
connection ; while to those points not seen, or dimly 
seen, and some of which are completely incrusted 
with the fossiliferous remains of the paleotherian pe- 
riod in theology, more attention is devoted. Yet even 
here the suggestive principle is observed. 

The doctrines of this volume are those essentially of 
our venerable fathers, save that in one particular there 
is a deeper shading of the same color, or rather a 
more intense glow of the same light. The grace that 
shows Christ to the infant in the land beyond the 
river, — w r e all believe this, — I suppose makes a simi- 
lar revelation to all who in this world have never 
heard the gospel. If infants are saved by becoming 
holy, all the conditions for the development of moral 
character are to be found in that other world as in 
this. This is not heresy, but only " more of the same 
thing." 

The religious mind of the present day — and almost 
everybody is religious in his way, pro or con in relation 
to " orthodoxy" — is like the troubled sea when it can- 
not rest. We cast this little volume upon the stormy 
waves, to meet the fate that God shall assign to it. 
Go, offspring of my heart's deepest experiences, go, 
and win men to Christ. And may the Angel of the 
Covenant go with thee. 



PREFACE. 5 

Just as I was laying down my pen, after writing the 
above, a newspaper came to my table containing the 
following : — 

" The late meeting at Ipswich [England], of the 
English Congregational Union, appears to have been 
one of great interest. The opening address of the 
chairman, the Rev. Eustace Conder, upon the c Decay 
of Theology/ was a thoughtful production. Mr. Con- 
der clearly recognized the fact that the old Calvinism 
has ceased to be the doctrine of the Congregational 
churches, and feared that in letting it go there had 
been too little care to supply its place with a consist- 
ent substitute. To the work of forming new and 
more satisfactory statements of the truths which are 
included in Christianity, he earnestly urged his breth- 
ren. 

This represents the feeling prevalent in our own 
country, and in every part of Protestant Christendom. 
To furnish this " consistent substitute," and this " more 
satisfactory statement," is the object of this volume. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 13 

CHAPTER I. 
The Creation 29 

The world Christ's. — Its early history written on the rocks. — 
The Garden of Eden prepared, by a local upheaval, in six 
literal days. — Its history revealed to a seer in a vision. 

CHAPTER II. 
The Fall 37 

The history of the Primal Pair given in allegory. — Jose- 
phus and the early Christian Fathers so understood it. — 
Understood as literal, it involves absurdities and contra- 
dictions. — Adam and Eve lived for a time unmarried. — 
When, by and by, Adam became the subject of the passion 
of sexual love, it was the condition precedent of marriage 
by divine direction. — The Fall presupposes amoral law, 
the knowledge of which must have been acquired by ex- 
ternal experiment. — Sin is the gratification of natural 
susceptibilities, inopportune or in excess. — The law of 
temperance to be learned by experiment. — The excess pre- 
supposed in a knowledge of the right law, would induce 
an abnormal and diseased condition of the susceptibili- 
ties. — This is constitutional depravity (auaQrla), and leads 
to sin. — The sin was subsequent to their marriage. — They 
must have been under moral obligations from the first — 
to themselves, each other, God, with a moral character as 
a necessity. — They were, then, first holy, then sinners. — 
Sin brought in train accusation of conscience, shame in the 
presence of each other, and more in the presence of God, 

7 



8 CONTENTS. 

and they resorted to " fig-leaf" apologies to hide from each 
other and from God their conscious guilt. — God made 
them better garments, in which they did not shrink from 
his presence — the robe of <k the righteousness which is by 
faith," i. e., he told them of forgiveness and reconciliation 
if penitent. — The verdict upon the woman and the ser- 
pent had no reference to Christ, but implied a perpetual 
conflict with temptation. — Wrong estimates of the Fall. — 
They did not fall from a state of security against sin — 
to themselves, for they sinned — to their children. — Into 
what " state" did they fall? Into the same arms of love 
that sustained them before they fell. — They were under 
the same government parental as before, but, of course, 
with the gracious element now, and not before, in exer- 
cise. — Paul (Rom. v. 12-21) makes less of the Fall than 
modern theologues. — The theory that the original gov- 
ernment was set aside, and a next best substituted, dis- 
honors God. — It has led to the notion of Trinity, and pen- 
alty, and commercial atonement. — And this is Orthodox. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Antediluvian Period 65 

Government of God personal and parental. — The religion 
of the period over-estimated. — No evidence of the piety 
of Adam. — Eve penitent and trustful. — Abel had faith, 
presumptively his brother Seth. — Public religious worship 
terminates with Enos. — Enoch and Noah solitary cases. — 
No civil government, no ecclesiastical organization, no law 
of the Sabbath or of marriage. — Chronology of the pe- 
riod; years were moons. — Did the flood destroy the race? 
— Design of the period? 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Patriarchal Period. . . 76 

An advance from the past; distinguished by, — 

1. Covenant security for the future. 

2. A great and blessed future was promised : in general to 

Noah ; more and more specific to Abraham and his sons. 



CONTENTS. 9 

3. Special divine interpositions. 

4. Formal religious worship. 

5. A church organization. 

6. The Theocratic civil element. 

7. The moral law was but partially revealed. 

8. Religion out of the line of the covenant. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Mosaic Period 85 

No improvement in the descendants of Abraham, previous 
to or during their residence in Egypt. — National civil gov- 
ernment, and religious ceremonial. — The former revealed 
the justice of God, the latter the mercy. — The sacrifices 
were external acts, in aid of the internal and spiritual. — 
Atonement made by penitence, and was signified by the 
blood of the offering. — Influence of Moses, Joshua. — The 
degradation that succeeded. — The birth of Samuel ; his in- 
fluence. — The regal office beneficial. — David, Solomon. — 
Idolatry. — The captivity; its benefits. — Growing spiritu- 
ality, as indicated by the prophets. — The Psalms of David. 
— Culture of the later centuries. — Review. — The Jews 
prepared intellectually for the Messiah. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Messiah 100 

Appeared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. — Was first 
educated for, and then inducted into, the Messiahship. — 
The connection of the Man and the Deity moral. — Growth 
in the religious character of Jesus even to the last. — The 
Logos God as revealed. — Apollinarianism takes away our 
Lord: he cannot, of course, be our Example ; no medium 
of the sympathy of the heart of God, unless the heart of 
God comes to us through a human heart. — To deny the 
humanity of the Messiah scarcely less pernicious than to 
deny his divinity. — Origen's theory of our common union 
with God through Christ. — The moral union can be per- 
petuated in heaven. 



IO CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Kingdom of Heaven — What it Pre- 
supposes 1 20 

I. With few exceptions, the human race were not under divine 

moral government. 

II. So far as such government existed, all its motives of good 

and evil were derived from this world, and from God 
as related to us here. 

III. The dead, good and bad, passed at death to Hades, and 

were there together. 

1. Much as are the good and bad in this world. 

2. With civil organizations. 

3. With ecclesiastical organizations. 

4. Under a restraint, and amenable to a tribunal to be es- 

tablished by the Messiah. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Kingdom of Heaven — What it Implies. 131 

The Kingdom of Heaven was inaugurated by the Messiah, 
and embraces,— 

I. The Life of Christ. 

1. As a man. 

2. And as such perfect. 

II. God in Christ — God as revealable. 

III. The revelation of a future life. 

IV. The sole administration, by the Messiah, of the divine 

government. 
1. Over both worlds. 
• 2. The living. 

3. The dead. 

V. The government of the Messiah, as alike gracious and re- 

formatory in both worlds. — This the prevailing opin- 
ion of the Christian church in all ages. 

1. The Work of the Messiah as essentially gracious. 

2. Christ was adapted to his work in both worlds by his 

humanity. 



CONTENTS. 1 1 

3. Christ is the Judge of the living and the dead. 

4. Infants are " of the Kingdom of Heaven." — Their pro- 

bation must be in Hades. 

5. The Messiah's commission embraced both worlds. 

6. His work among the angels was Messianic. 

7. Paul hoped for the future life of not only the just but 

the unjust. — He could not hope to God that men 
around him would spend an eternity in woe. 

8. The biblical representations of the greatness and glory 

of the kingdom of Christ imply that something more 
than a small fraction of the race is to be saved. 

9. There are texts that state directly that the gospel is 

preached to the dead. 
10. Reason demands the fact of future probation — those 
innermost intuitions that are the voice of God. — 
Life is brief. — Life is inceptive. — Character is de- 
veloping towards stability in its kind, and this, rather 
than time, should be decisive of destiny. — Men are 
hurried indiscriminately from life. — If an infinite in- 
terest is involved in the life of man here, he should 
know it. — The infant and the heathen know it not. — 
The Jews even knew it not. — This was the opinion 
of the early fathers and martyrs. 
VI. The moral power in this gracious administration fur- 
nished, — 

1. By the heart of God as revealed by the Messiah. 

2. By the perfect life of Christ as a man — in the flesh — 

spirit. 

3. By the doctrines he taught. 

(«.) The vitiated state of the race constitutionally and 

morally. 
(J?.) Christ had come into the world to save it. 
(c.) God as a Spirit was to dwell on the earth, and by 

special or miraculous agency to bless and save 

the world, and guide them in their work. 
Miracles. — Infidelity. — An especial work of the Spirit is 

to change the heart of man. — Infant conversion. 

4. By the institution of heaven. 



12 CONTENTS. 

5. By a perfect system of religious culture in both worlds. 
(1.) The present world. (2.) The future world. 
VII. Christ's work of grace to continue in both worlds, till 
religion has become universal and perfectly control- 
ling in this world. "Behold, I make all things new." 

CHAPTER IX. 

Eternal Punishment — False Advocacy Cor- 
rected. 194 

The belief in this doctrine less practical than with our fa- 
thers. — Statement of the doctrine. — Has the church out- 
grown it? or is it the unfortunate statement and advocacy 
of the doctrine that is at fault? — This we think true. 

The following are among the false arguments employed : — 

1. The necessities of penalty. 

2. The claims of justice.* 

3. The import of atoiviov. 

4. The fact of future suffering. 

5. The fact that men die unholy. 

6. The fact that there has been a judgment of men, and 

their condemnation in this world. 

7. The assumption that disbelief of it would demoralize 

the world. 

8. The teachings of the Old Testament. 

9. The voice of antiquity. 

10. The fact that in modern times Universalists, to such 

an extent, have been irreligious men. 

11. Certain phrases in the Gospels? 

12. Certain phrases by the Apostles. 

13. The symbolic language in the Apocalypse. 

APPENDIX. 

A. Right and Conscience 231 

B. Penalty not an Element in the Moral 

Government of God 250 

C. 1 Peter hi. 18-21 259 

D. The Church and its Functions. . . . 268 



INTRODUCTION, 



PREVIOUS to the astronomic illumination given 
the world by Copernicus, there were theories ex- 
planatory of the phenomena of the heavens. Each 
theory had its advocates, and they were all alike in 
error. Of the all-comprehensive principle applicable 
to the case, and the recognition of which would solve 
all their difficulties, they were ignorant. We think 
the endless disputes in the department of religious 
truth are to be accounted for on a similar principle. 
The Bible contains a system of religious truth, but, like 
the facts in nature, the truths of the Bible are not pre- 
sented in scientific arrangement ; yet the latter as cer- 
tainly as the former are in harmony with great and 
all-pervading principles. These principles must be 
understood, or the isolated facts will not be. The 
Bible, as a divinely-inspired volume of religious truth, 
is, in all its parts, in harmony with a perfect Ethics. 
And these parts can be understood only as they are 
seen in their relations to the fundamental principles of 
this science. These principles the church has yet to 
learn. What is Right, and what Wrong, what is 
Conscience, what the primal and generic element of 
the character of God as holy, are questions yet to be 

13 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

answered scientifically, and accepted by most of even 
the religious teachers of the Church. Yet they are 
fundamental. And we can no more hope for a con- 
sistent theological system, till these questions are cor- 
rectly answered, than for a science of astronomy 
without the great Copernican fact. 

. It is with these convictions that the author has been 
for many years in the habit of reading his Bible. He 
has felt under no obligation to run in the old theo- 
logical ruts. He has felt at liberty to search and pray 
for the Truth, even the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself the chief corner-stone. 
And he has written the following pages, not unwilling, 
if he must err, to err in new forms. There will be 
at least the relief of novelty. And he hopes there 
may be some truth unearthed from the rubbish of past 
theological ages. The man who has devoted most 
attention to the history of doctrines will be least likely 
to take exception to what I am now saying. 

Christendom is in a state of transition. The past 
cannot go into the future. Authority in religious 
belief and practice is coming to an end. The reign 
of common sense and of intuitional convictions is at 
hand. 

Man is religious by nature, just as he is social by 
nature. Hence he is to study himself, and to learn 
from himself his first lessons in religion. In this way 
he learns the fact of a Deity, and also the character of 
that God. The correlates of the being and of the pri- 
mal elements of the character of God are in the consti- 
tution of man. Food is not more certainly a demand 
of the physical nature of man, than is a God, and 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

certain elements of character in that God, a demand 
of his moral nature. That God is his Creator, and he 
has made him for such correlation. And to man 
normal, there is and can be no authority so high as 
the testimony of his own consciousness, none so cer- 
tainly and so directly from God himself. 

But the state of man is abnormal. Abnormal func- 
tions are implied in and follow in the train of sin. 
Subjectively, or as constitutional elements of the 
being, the functions become thus diseased, and their 
action, of course, in still greater degree, deranged. As 
an effect of the Fall, moral darkness has come over the 
mind. The report of our intuitions is, therefore, to be 
taken with allowance. Still the pri rial elements are 
there. And with allowance for the influence of de- 
pravity, their utterances are not to be disregarded. 
We see this illustrated in the earnest, and to some 
extent successful efforts of the more cultivated of the 
heathen. They " felt after, if haply they might find 
God," and obtain correct views of his character and 
government, and of the obligations and privileges 
of man as his creature. During the four or five cen- 
turies that immediately preceded the advent of the 
Messiah, — the period in which the human mind, un- 
aided by revelation, made its highest attainments, — the 
philosophers of Greece and Rome occupied positions 
of sublimity, and expressed opinions of the character 
of the Deity that should shame some of our modern 
theologians. I would sooner choose the Deity of some 
of those great men for my heart's trust and love, than 
the God of Drs. Shedd, or Hovey, or Hickok. Plato 
and his disciples " found " a Deity that delighted in the 



1 6 INTRODUCTION. 

happiness of his creatures ; and their ethics required 
of men that they too should be benevolent. But these 
philosophers were not perfectly assured and at rest 
in their conclusions, and became convinced that the 
Deity must make a special revelation to the world to 
meet its wants. 

But, that revelation made, it was perverted. Divine- 
ly authoritative, it was assumed that man had no 
longer a necessity to study himself. Moral, and ad- 
dressed to the moral elements of our nature, and every- 
where proceeding on the assumption of the facts of 
moral science, it was read by men who devoted no 
successful attention to that science. They had a com- 
munication direct from Heaven, and, as they supposed, 
need no longer study the nature of things. But the 
Bible assumed this very knowledge of nature. Hence 
the ethical statements of Paul were as erroneously in- 
terpreted as were the historic statements of the first 
chapter of Genesis — the science of ethics and geology 
alike unknown. Among the more learned of the first 
centuries, the Christian fathers, there was the attempt 
to use what they regarded as philosophy, in the con- 
struction of a theology, but with results that were, 
many of them, monstrous, and that especially were 
without significance to the common people, who rested 
satisfied in the fact that they had an inspired volume, 
and wished only to follow that. And for its meaning 
they depended on their religious teachers, and ignored 
the fact that they had a standard in the reports of their 
own intuitions, by which to try the correctness or 
otherwise of these teachings. Hence dogmas and 
creeds became authoritative. This, at first, silent ad- 



INTRODUCTION. 1 7 

mission was soon crystallized into ecclesiastical law, 
and to depart from the creed was heresy. After the 
enthronement of Christianity in the chair of state, and 
the consequent corruption of the clergy, this principle 
was carried to the greatest extreme. The people were 
made the veriest slaves and sycophants of a corrupt 
and selfish priesthood. It soon became a sin to doubt 
the word of a priest, still more of his superior. The 
church was infallible. And the laity were forbidden 
the private use of the Bible. This was the state of 
Christendom for several centuries before the Refor- 
mation. 

The Reformers rebelled against this theory profess- 
edly, but it was rather against the abuse of it. And 
Luther and Calvin had each, with his disciples, essen- 
tially the same authority as the priest with the Catholic. 
The rigor of this principle has indeed somewhat 
abated, yet it has too much power at the present day. 

The infidelity of the past century consisted essen- 
tially in a disbelief in the creeds and the teachings of 
the church, and then, as if fairly represented in these 
creeds, in the Bible. French infidelity was and is the 
offspring of Catholicism. The present infidelity in 
Germany, England, and our own country grows from 
the soil of Protestant dogmas. I know indeed that 
such men as Strauss and Renan dabble in historic 
evidence. But this is not the stronghold of faith in 
the good. It is the internal evidence, the conscious 
correlation of Christianity to the nature and wants of 
the soul. 

I have said that, as in the astronomy of the ancients, 
so in the theology of the past and much of the present, 
2 



1 8 INTRODUCTION. 

there are errors in fundamental principles. Next to 
God himself, the moral government of God is the fact 
of greatest importance to men. Yet in the very fun- 
damental principles of both the moral character of 
God, and of the nature of his moral government, the 
theology taught in some of our theological seminaries 
of the present day is grossly in error. The inferences 
deduced from such premises must, of course, be 
supremely wrong. And, in fact, not a few, and some 
of the fundamental, elements in our theology are 
monstrous. 

An error more fundamental than perhaps any other 
is in the assumption that fenalty is an element in 
moral government. As penalty has a prominent place 
and function in a civil administration, and to dispense 
with it in case of the penitence of the transgressor 
would emasculate the government, and virtually di- 
vest law of its force, so it is inferred that the divine 
moral government would, under a forgiving dispensa- 
tion, be divested of its power, unless some equivalent 
were furnished for the support of authority. But such 
an equivalent could be furnished only by one above 
all personal obligations to the government as a subject. 
God, and not a creature, must then be the mediator. 
But this would involve absurdity, except on the hypoth- 
esis of different " persons " in the Deity. Hence the doc- 
trine itself, supi'emely absurd, of" three persons in one 
God." And then those "persons" must be unlike — 
the Father must be sternly holy, and hate sin and sin- 
ners, and take holy delight in punishing them. But 
the Son must be loving and kind, and ready to suffer 
for men to save them. And he intercedes (so they 



INTRODUCTION. 1 9 

render tvTvy/dieiv) with the stern Father. Here then 
we have two Gods, one of whom we cannot love. 

And then, again, as penalty is evil inflicted upon the 
violators of law as a dissuasive to others from perpe- 
trating the same offence, and has no reference to the 
good — the reformation or otherwise — of the sufferer ; 
and as it is for the violation of law, and presupposes 
therefore a trial and conviction ; and as during the 
present ltfe it is admitted there are to all, the offers of 
forgiveness if penitent, there cannot be here such final 
trial and penal infliction. Therefore, the "judgment " 
(xglaig) of the New Testament must be, though in 
the face of the most imperative grammatical demands, 
pushed forward to the future world. And all men 
are to be tried there with reference to acceptance or 
the infliction of penalty. And as such infliction is, of 
course, incompatible with the means of grace and the 
fact of reformation, there can be no such grace beyond 
the grave. Hence the great theatre on which the 
Savior is to employ his grace for the redemption of 
our race, is lost to the Christian's creed ; and the day 
of death is the day of doom alike to the man of gray 
hairs and to the infant of days ; and the selfish appeal, 
" Prepare for death," is urged in its adaptation to lead 
men to a religion of selfishness. And as the adverse 
judgment with reference to membership in the King- 
dom of Heaven, left men upon that ever-flowing tide of 
sin and woe, from which alone the grace of Christ can 
rescue them, and as, after the final verdict at death, 
grace is no more, that tide must bear them on and on 
eternally ; and the child of but a solitary sin could 
have no other assignment, and an eternity and an in- 
finitude of woe and despair be his portion. 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

Hence, too, the necessary assumption that sin is an 
infinite evil, — the least sin, as of the child, and that 
such sinner, as the perpetrator of such an evil act, 
must deserve an infinite punishment, and on the 
ground of personal ill-desert. He is infinitely guilty, 
infinitely to blame. He was acting under infinite re- 
sponsibility, and with infinite obligations. We are 
speaking of the child who has committed but one sin, 
and that, of course in the comparative ignorance of 
childhood. Now, all this may be accepted by men 
whose creeds consist in words, not ideas. But to men 
who attend to the voice of God, that comes to them 
from their inmost intuitions, it is all — infinitude 
seems to be on hand just now, and we will say — " infi- 
nitely " absurd. If the human mind can know any- 
thing, it knows that infinite ill-desert cannot attach to 
such a sin ; and that eternal and infinite suffering 
would be an infinitely unjust penalty for the same. 

But as these theoretic facts enter into the theoretic 
divine administration, a theoretic character of God 
and theoretic principles of his government must be 
made to correspond. The skill of metaphysicians has 
invented the following method : Justice in God is an 
" ultimate," and right in ethics is an " ultimate." 
And this justice is made the primal element in the 
divine character. Justice is displeased with sin and 
pleased with its punishment; and as sin is an infinite 
evil, a just and adequate punishment would be infinite. 
And it would be right to inflict it. Not only so, God, 
as infinitely just, and as doing right in this infliction, 
must be infinitely happy in thus doing right. His 
justice must be infinitely gratified, and he must, from 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

his nature as infinitely just, look down from " the 
throne of his glory" with infinite complacency upon 
the lake of fire and brimstone in which his helpless, 
but depraved and sinning creatures, — some of them 
sinning only in Adam as some say, — are writhing in 
agony. And he will do this forever and ever, and be 
thus infinitely blessed.* That God is "love," is a 
fact that must be ignored in its supremacy, and be 
understood to be a compassionate pity, that needs to be 
restrained and regulated by justice. And this is called 
the Gospel of Christ ! This assumes to call itself 
14 Orthodoxy." " O, my soul, come not thou into 
their secret ; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not 
thou united.*' This whole system is an infinite per- 
version of the " glorious gospel of the blessed God." 

The writer is aware of the penalty attached to the 
law of regular succession in theology, and is ready to 
meet it. When John Brown was going to the gallows, 
he expressed the opinion that to hang him would prob- 
ably be, to the cause he loved, the best use that could 
be made of him. However, I am not ambitious of the 
honor of martyrdom. 

Let, then, the principles whose guidance has led us 
through the system of religious truth be distinctly 
stated. 

First, an ethics whose principles are simple and de- 
fined. God is love. Love's correlate is the happiness of 
others, and this — the happiness of others, and all others 
— is the object of the divine administration. Right as 
predicated of the means to that end, signifies adapted. 

* Prof. Shedd, in Bib. Rep., 1859, p. 738. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

Man, as made in the image of God, finds his normal 
condition in being, in the particular above named, 
like God, benevolent, and this as the fundamental ele- 
ment in his character. The law of God requires love. 
" Love is the fulfilling of the law." " He that dwelleth 
in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." The 
rectitude of his acts consists in their adaptedness to the 
great end. Wrong is the opposite of right. Con- 
science is a susceptibility to a peculiar kind of pleasure 
or pain in view of one's right or wrong acts ; and, 
modified somewhat, in view of the right or wrong of 
the acts of others. 

Secondly, that the moral government of God is 
simply and purely moral, and that, consequently, its 
sole appeal is to the moral functions ; i. e., penalty, as 
appealing simply to fear, is not and cannot be an ele- 
ment in the moral administration of God. During the 
Theocracy, the moral and the civil were united in the 
same government — the civil law, with its penalties, to 
be inflicted in time only, and the moral, with its moral 
influences, addressing the moral in the human consti- 
tution. In the Kingdom of Heaven*, the administra- 
tion of the Messiah is purely moral. 

We think these simple principles have carried us 
through the entire system of revealed truth, and en- 
abled ns to see, and we will indulge the hope, make 
plain to others, the great system of religious truth in 
the Bible. "We have found the book of the law'' 
that has been so far lost sight of in the rubbish of the 
dark ages. We have the " Bible regained," and, as a 
consequence, " the God of the Bible is ours." 

The class of persons who will look with most regret 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

upon this somewhat modified method of stating the 
doctrines of the Bible, will be those of my own age, 
and who, " by reason of strength," are, like myself, 
making their way beyond the three score years and 
ten. There are men whose theological system was 
received and crystallized in the seminary, and who 
piously revere the form of sound words. There are 
others, the elements of whose system at first are like 
plants in the vegetable world, and are kept growing 
their life long. And the extent and specific form of 
this growth depends upon circumstances. 

The writer has a theory, which he will state in con- 
nection with the history of its exemplification. In the 
early part of my ministry, say, from the year 1830 to 
1845, in addition to my own pastoral duties, I spent 
much time aiding my brethren in revivals and pro- 
tracted meetings. I went to the pulpit with the con- 
scious inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The atmosphere 
of the house of God seemed vital with the same divine 
power. The great work to be done was to help 
thoughtful, anxious hearers to feel that they were sin- 
ners, and to feel that there was a Savior with a mul- 
titude of tender mercies. And I seemed to have an 
intuitive ferceptioiz of what were the truths of the 
Bible addressed and adapted to such hearers. And I 
preached to them the law of God in its perfect benev- 
olence and perfect rightness — not the law of an arbi- 
trary sovereign acting the unfeeling magistrate, but 
the wise and loving prescription of a heavenly Father, 
whose one end and object was to bless us. His dis- 
pleasure was that of grief and tears — to be dreaded 
as are the tears of an aggrieved mother by a truant 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

child. And my hearers were brought u under convic- 
tion/' and intensely so. They could raise no objection 
to such a government, nor excuse themselves from 
obligation to obey, and to repent of disobedienee. Sin 
was felt to be " exceeding sinful." 

The Savior that I preached was a Savior infinite in 
his love, that loved us in tenderness and pity while 
we were yet enemies, and died for us when such, and 
that now was waiting to forgive the returning penitent ; 
and that to such, his heart would be instantly and for- 
ever reconciled. The idea of a commercial atonement 
as an equivalent for the penalty not inflicted, was, of 
course, alluded to in deference to the claims of Ortho- 
doxy, but without any attempt at practical application, 
or perceived relevancy, or moral availability. 

In other years, and with more of leisure and ability 
for independent investigation, and with a conviction 
that had increased year by year that there were in our 
metaphysical theology some monstrous errors, that 
were operating disastrously upon human character, 
I attempted to construct for myself an ethics, exegesis, 
and theology. And the result was, that I found both 
philosophy and the Bible in harmony with the report 
of my own intuitions. I found God — the real God 
of the Bible — to be the true correlate to the soul of 
man as man ; and the Savior — the real Savior of the 
Bible, a pitying and forgiving Savior — to be the true 
correlate to man as a sinner. 

And I would suggest to my brethren, the fathers in 
the ministry, that we enjoin upon our younger breth- 
ren who are taking our places, not that they shall be 
sticklers for the old traditional forms of " Orthodoxy ," 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

but rather that they must be filled with the Holy 
Ghost, must be profoundly in Christ; so that they 
shall thus look at the gospel from Christ's own stand- 
point, and see things as he saw them, and find in his 
words what he designed to embody in them. The 
day in which for such advice to be given and to be 
followed has " fully come." May the Lord never 
give to the world such a generation of ministers as 
we have been. We do, indeed, love the Savior and 
his cause, and have toiled in his service, and not 
without success. But there is a plane above that 
which we have occupied. May our successors stand 
upon it, walk in its light, and know its inspiration 
and its successes. 

It is a fact, full of hope, that there is in those who 
lead the van of the " sacramental host " the belief that 
neither creeds nor anathemas are of any avail in pre- 
serving purity of doctrine in the church. The facts of 
history are decisive on this point. They who have 
made the freest use of creeds to fence out error, have 
suffered most from its inroads. And from the days of 
the corrupt and vain Justinian, and his more corrupt 
clerical advisers whose tool he was, and they his, it 
is found that they who have been most ready and 
severe in the use of anathemas, have had very little of 
the spirit of the gospel for which they profess to be 
fighting. And especially is it true of our own times 
and country, so distinguished for the freedom of opin- 
ions, both political and religious, that the attempt to 
employ authority, and the votes of clerical or ecclesi- 
astical bodies for the protection or advancement of 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

Orthodoxy, only creates disgust, and is followed by 
reaction. I would gladly see in all our churches so 
called, creeds, as a condition of fellowship, set aside, 
and the one question be, Is the candidate a Christian? 
Churches may have their confessions of faith in their 
records, and select their pastors with reference to the 
same ; and candidates for fellowship and union should 
understand the kind of preaching they will have, in 
deciding whether to worship with a given church, or 
some other of different creed. 

The one and sole preventive to religious error is an 
eminent spirituality — not excluding, of course, intel- 
lectual culture. A heart full of Christ, will see and 
love and live upon the gospel of Christ. And it will 
have an intuitive discrimination between religious 
truth and error. And those nervous sticklers for 
the trinket forms of phraseology, that are the offspring 
of the so-called philosophies of the dark ages, will 
find a sedative to their morbid sensitiveness by ac- 
cepting, and inwardly digesting, this great truth. If, 
however, any of my good brethren shall be still ag- 
grieved for the erring author, I assure them I recipro- 
cate all their benevolent interest, and would say to 
them, " Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves." 

Some years since I published a little volume enti- 
tled " Eschatology," in which I attempted to show — 
what had thus far strangely escaped the notice of com- 
mentators — that there was to be made a distinction 
between "the Coming of the Son of Man," and " the 
Coming or Appearing of the Lord." The former re- 
ferred to the coming of the promised Messiah to 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

establish the " Kingdom of Heaven," the latter to the 
manifestation of Christ to his disciples, after his inau- 
guration in the spiritual world as Lord and Head over 
.all things to the Church. This manifestation was 
made to Christians by the change in the mode of their 
constitutional being implied in death. Also that death 
was a natural transition from the animal to the spirit- 
ual body : and that by " resurrection " (upuaraaig) was 
meant the future life, or life beyond the grave. The 
doctrine of " the resurrection of the body " was shown 
to be without foundation in the Scriptures. In the 
following pages very little attention is bestowed upon 
the proof of these positions. Their truth is assumed. 
If any reader wishes a more extended consideration, 
he is respectfully referred to " Eschatology." Some 
points incidental to the above, a more extended con- 
sideration has modified. 



THE BIBLE REGAINED 

AND 

THE GOD OF THE BIBLE OURS. 
CHAPTER I. 

CREATION. 

THIS world is Christ's. The history of its cre- 
ation, and of the divine government over it, is a 
history of the development of Christ, the eternal Lo- 
gos. It will be the design of this work to trace, in 
outline, this divine government as thus understood. In 
it we shall find Christ " all, and in all." 

First, in the order of events, is the preparation of 
our planet as the theatre on which for his work to be 
performed. All things were made by him, and with 
reference to him (elg avrov)^ and of course adapted to 
his purpose. The mountains and the hills, the valleys 
and the plains, the rivers and the oceans, and even the 
thorns and the thistles, are all a part of the great plan. 
The early history of the work of Christ, then, is found 
in " the everlasting hills," and reaches to an antiquity 
so remote, that human estimates attempt not its dates. 

29 



30 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

The " comings forth " of the Messiah " have been 
from the days of eternity." The rocks tell of the work 
of his hands, and of the process by which our world has 
been made what it is. As God has taken so much 
pains to give us this history, it must be worthy of our 
study. 

When in the fullness of time the general surface of 
our planet had become adapted to its purposes as the 
theatre on which to develop the character of the race 
to be, the pen of inspiration began its work. The 
record written upon the rocks by the finger of God, 
tells us that among the various changes that have oc- 
curred in the material of the globe, have been up- 
heavals of particular portions that had long been be- 
neath the waters, to become the theatres of animal and 
vegetable life ; and that in these changes, the laws of 
nature, or established and known methods of divine 
agency, have been qualified as to their results by 
special divine agency. New forms of matter, that 
were additions to the fauna and flora of the world, 
have left in the rocks the history of their creation and 
of their preservation for a time as adapted to the then 
partially developed constitution of the planet. One of 
these upheavals was now to occur, and thus furnish a 
virgin soil, and other particulars, for the abode of the 
Primal Pair about to be created as the germ of a race 
of moral agents. It was the pleasure of God that the 
process by which this new abode for man was made 
ready for his reception, should after be revealed to 
him in detail. A seer was taught the story. As at 
subsequent times seers were made prescient by visions, 
so now the past was revealed in this method. 



CREATION. 31 

The vision of the seer opens just before the dawn of 
the first of the six days. On every side there was the 
" wasteness and desolation" of a vast watery sur- 
face. Darkness was upon the deep, and the winds 
(DViia im, breath of God, i. e., wind) were still, as if 
brooding over the waters. But God said " Let there 
be light," and there was light. That is, in the lan- 
guage of modern science, the earth, by its revolution 
upon its axis, brought that part of its surface to the 
light of the sun. 

On the second day the dense and dark cloud that 
had rested upon the waters rose, and thus separated 
the watery cloud from the waters below. This inter- 
vening space was called the " firmament." 

On the third day the slowly rising ground came to 
the surface, while the waters retired, of course, into the 
submarine valleys. Brought to the influence of the 
atmosphere and the light, all was ready for vegetable 
life. This seems to have sprung into being in matu- 
rity, as did afterwards the human Pair. 

On the fourth day, the clouds that had risen on a 
previous day cleared away, and thus presented to the 
eye of the seer the sun, moon, and stars. 

On the fifth day God said, Let the waters bring forth 
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and let 
fowl fly above the earth. This may have been by 
miracle, or it may be that the atmosphere and the 
waters that had been so disturbed by the processes of 
preceding days were now tranquil, so that the birds 
appeared again in the heavens, and the fishes ventured 
to visit the waters near the new-made territory. Even 
the great whales that inhabited the now Caspian and 



32 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

Northern Seas, then united, appeared in the neighbor- 
hood of the garden that was getting ready for man.* 

On the sixth day the land animals made their ap- 
pearance. They may, by this time, have come from 
the contiguous and older territory as immigrants, or 
they may have been created miraculously, or both 
methods may have been employed. Either hypothe- 
sis is in keeping with geologic teachings. This day 
witnessed the crowning work, the creation of the 

* Scientists tell us that what is now the Caspian Sea was 
once a part of the Atlantic Ocean. That sea is in a vast ba- 
sin, needing only a supply of water to become greatly ex- 
tended on every hand, except, perhaps, the west, where the 
mountainous region of Armenia would prevent. There is 
evidence that the region about the Caspian was once a salt 
sea, and therefore probably connected with the ocean. The 
country south of the Caspian was by the ancients called 
Salt Desert. As in point, we quote the following from a re- 
port by Dr. Karl Vogt, of a recent Congress of Paleontolo- 
gists at Copenhagen, presented to the " German Scientific 
Association," at its late meeting at Innsbruck. 

"It is certain that posterior to the advent of man, the 
Straits of Gibraltar, of Dover, and the Dardanelles, as well 
as Sicily and Africa, were still united by isthmuses ; the whole 
Mediterranean area was separated from Africa by a sea in* 
the basin of Sahara; the Baltic was a sea of ice, covering the 
whole low level of Northern Gerinany and Russia, and cut- 
ting off Finland, Sweden, and Norway into what would have 
been an island but for its junction with Denmark." 

If this opinion, sustained by the authority of great names 
and the learning of Europe, is entitled to credence, our hy- 
pothesis expressed above is confirmed. The river that passed 
through Eden eastward, and watered the Garden, where it 
separated into four principal branches at its mouth, forming 
thus a delta, emptied into the Caspian Sea, — where were 
" great whales " for Adam to name. 



CREATION. 33 

Adam, — a bisexous being, "a male and a female." 
Thus were finished the heavens and the earth ; all 
that appeared to the prophet, and all that was known 
to him, ignorant as he was of geographic or astro- 
nomic science. 

On the seventh day God had finished his work 
which he had made, and rested, and sanctified the 
day as a Day of Rest. 

Note. The design of the Sabbath, appointed on the 
seventh day, as immediately succeeding the six days of 
the Creation, was to meet a need in man as animal, 
intellectual, social, and religious. The interest of man 
required that he should devote six days to labor ; 
also, that he should make the seventh day a day of 
joyous, holy rest. The inferior animals in the service 
of man, in common with the animal nature of man 
himself, required this rest. God enforced the observ- 
ance of this day of rest by his own example. 

By the Fall, this institution, like marriage, was lost, 
till restored ages afterwards. Periods of seven days 
during the Patriarchal age have been supposed to in- 
dicate a Sabbath ; but it is very doubtful if they have 
any such significance. There is nothing in the send- 
ing out of the doves at intervals of seven days that is 
inconsistent with this hypothesis. But in the case of 
Jacob's wedding feast, which continued through seven 
days, the sanctity of the Sabbath seems not to be re- 
cognized. Had the Patriarchs observed the day reli- 
giously, we think there would have been some allusion 
to the fact. It is recorded again and again that they 
built altars and worshipped. 

3 



34 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

That the children of Israel knew nothing of the 
Sabbath when they left Egypt is evident. When they 
had arrived at the desert of Sin, and were pressed with 
hunger, they cried unto the Lord, and he promised to 
send them food, — first quails in the evening, then 
manna in the morning ; the latter for six days in suc- 
cession, but with none on the seventh ; and this for an 
indefinite period. The reason for this arrangement 
was not understood, and "all the rulers" came to 
Moses to ask explanations. (Ex. xvi. 22, 23.) The 
answer of Moses is equally in point. It is a great Rest- 
day, a rest holy to Jehovah. The absence of the arti- 
cle in the Hebrew forbids the supposition of a refer- 
ence to the institution as known. So the intensive 
" a great Rest-day," and that it is to be kept holy to 
the Lord, show that it was to the men of that day 
a new institution, and needed to be described, and its 
nature and design explained. In the recapitulation in 
Deuteronomy, the reason given for the Sabbath is that 
the laborers might have rest ; and the Israelites should 
remember that they were servants in the land of 
Egypt, and had no Sabbath of rest. 

There is no evidence that the day of the Sabbath 
appointed in the desert of Sin, was the same as 
that in Eden. The first day of the six dates from the 
murmurings of the hungry people. That the day 
previous to the first gift of manna was not a Sabbath, 
not only as known to the people, but as regarded by 
Jehovah, we. infer from the fact that the quails were 
given on that day in the afternoon, i. e., between 
three o'clock and the night. Taking them, dressing 
them, and eating them, as cooked in the use of fire, 



Creation. 35 

would ill comport with subsequent regulations for the 
observance of the Sabbath. 

The institution of the Sabbath in the desert of Sin 
was previous to the Mosaic Institute, and had no con- 
nection with it or reference to it. It simply imports that 
it is the duty and privilege of individuals and of com- 
munities to observe one day in seven as a day of joy- 
ous rest, and holy to the Lord. The obligation rests 
upon all men in every age. The existence or other- 
wise of the Theocracy affects it not. 

The incorporation of the Sabbath into the laws of 
the Theocracy confirms the opinion above expressed, 
that communities should observe one day in seven. 
The manner in which the law is there given in rela- 
tion to the Sabbath, shows that when a particular day 
is observed by a community, that very day is to be ob- 
served by all the people, as much of the design of the 
Sabbath were else defeated. The command is, Re- 
member the very day, the Sabbath (r,a, 6ut6;, ipse). 
The spirit of this command in the Decalogue, and the 
laws of the nation, bears directly against the Seventh- 
day Baptists. 

I would guard against the inference from this allu- 
sion to the Commandments that I quote them as au- 
thoritative. The " Ten Commandments," as such^ are 
abolished. They were a part of the laws of a nation 
that has ceased to be, for these eighteen centuries, and 
of course as laws of that nation are no more obligatory 
upon us than are the laws of the Roman Empire ob- 
ligatory upon the citizens of the United States. That 
the Ten Commandments are among the things which, 
in the New Testament, are represented as passed away, 



36 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

is evident. Indeed, they are repeatedly called " the 
covenant " which God made with Israel. (Vide Deut. 
iv. 13 ; ix. 9-1 1). The New Testament speaks of the 
Old as distinguished from the New Covenant or Tes- 
tament, and in the Old includes both the " written " 
law and that " engraven on stones." (2 Cor. iii. 7 ; 
Heb. viii. 13.) 

Besides, parts of the Ten Commandments are spe- 
cifically local, and do not admit of general application. 
The reward promised to filial piety was long life in 
Palestine under the Theocracy. The fourth command- 
ment requires the observance of the very same day 
that was observed in the desert of Sin. A race living 
on a sphere whose days and nights are conditioned 
upon the revolution of the sphere on its own axis, 
cannot keep the same day the world around. There 
must be some place where, side by side, different days 
must be observed. Our missionaries have run the 
line in the Pacific Ocean 180 from the Observatory at 
Greenwich. 

All that is moralin the Ten Commandments is, of 
course, as moral, binding upon the men of every age. 
But the same is true of the Justinian Code. 



THE FALL. 37 



CHAPTER II. 



THE FALL. 



HENCEFORTH the great fact in the history of 
this world is Man — his Fall and his Recovery.* 
The history of the Fall of our First Parents is given 
us in allegory. Josephus, in his preface to the Jewish 
Wars, tells us that Moses sometimes uses " tasteful 
allegory." The first chapter of Genesis he regards as 
literally historic ; i.e., descriptive of a scene represent- 
ing the facts of the first six days ; but adds, " After the 
seventh day he begins to philosophize " (r^^ono (pvaioM- 
yetv). The early Christian Fathers understood it as alle- 
gory. Clement of Alexandria says," The serpent creep- 
ing upon his belly, allegorically represents sensuality." 
The ethical history of the Fall, in the language of sci- 

* We are now about to enter upon the moral history of 
man, and to attempt the interpretation of the Scriptures in 
their relations to the same. The sacred writings every- 
where assume the facts of Ethics. But there is no subject 
about which the opinions of men are so vague and indefinite, 
and between themselves so contradictory. The author has 
attempted definitions of " right," " wrong," and " con- 
science," and appended the same to this volume. The 
reader will find his account in consulting the note, as pre- 
paratory to the attempt to understand the following pages. 
Vide Appendix, Note A. 



38 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

ence, would not have been understood by the contem- 
poraries of the original author. And we find this 
principle of accommodation to the capacities of men 
observed throughout the Bible. The prophets em- 
ployed allegory often. The Messiah taught by para- 
bles. And we are inclined to the opinion that the 
story of his Temptation is an allegory. The Messiah 
must go forth upon his work as a man, and dependent 
as any other man. And his miraculous power was 
not to interfere with this idea. He might not work 
miracles for his own personal comfort and indepen- 
dence. Else he could not be our example. He might 
work miracles for his Messianic glorification. But as 
such, their object must be the good of others — works 
of love and piety. And then he must not incorporate 
into his means civil or military power. His was a 
moral work, and his cause must know no other than 
moral means for its advancement. The philosophical 
statement of these principles would have been less 
intelligible and less impressive to the Jews. Bible 
usage thus creates a presumption that such an event 
as that of the Fall, involving as it does the deepest and 
most subtle principles of intellectual and moral philos- 
ophy, would be told in allegory, — just as we should 
expect Moses to say " The sun rose," and not " The 
planet, by its revolution on its axis, brought us into the 
range of the straight lines of light from the sun." 

There lies on the very face of the story the evidence 
of allegory. The rib, the two trees, the fig leaves, the 
garments from the skins of animals, the serpent talk- 
ing, all conspire to forbid any other hypothesis. That 
the literal eating of the fruit of one of the trees should, 



THE FALL. 39 

as an effect, secure perpetual life to the soul, while the 
eating of the fruit of another should, as an effect, im- 
part the knowledge of good or evil, and with it death, 
are hypotheses which we shall find it difficult to give 
a place in ethical science. So also of the fact that 
our first parents, as constitutionally capable of moral 
government, should find their sole duty to consist in re- 
fraining from the eating of the fruit of a specified tree. 
From the nature of the case they were, and could not but 
be, under moral obligations to themselves, to each 
other, and to God, and in many particulars. The 
allusions to the tree of life elsewhere in the Scriptures 
(Rev. ii. 7 ; xxii. 2) confirm our theory. When the 
race shall be restored to its normal condition, it will 
eat of the tree of life. — Jotham's story of the trees in 
search of a king (Judges ix. 8, seq.) does not more 
positively forbid a literal interpretation. 

The literal interpretation involves contradictions 
which the assumption of allegory makes harmonious. 
In chapter i. 27, we are told in historic narrative that 
on the sixth day God created the Adam a male and a 
female, making the creation of both parts of the bisex- 
ous being contemporaneous. But in chapter ii. 21, 22, 
the wife is represented as made from the rib of Adam, 
and not till he had been placed in the garden with 
instructions to cultivate it, and had, in form, been put 
under the moral government of his Maker ; not until 
he had become so acquainted with the inferior animals 
as to give them names. 

As allegorically represented, this difficulty is obvi- 
ated. It implies that the human pair were placed in 
the garden to take care of, and cultivate it, and find thus 



40 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

their sustenance ; and that for a time the parties lived 
unmarried. Nothing would be more natural. Eve 
was made a woman, and as such would be coy and 
retiring. Adam was made a 7nan, and as such must, 
in the spirit of chivalrous manhood, respect and defer 
to this instinct in woman. Yet these very traits of 
feminine character had, such was his nature and theirs, 
resistless attractions. Adam had seen the inferior 
animals, and, as is implied, in their sexual relations. 
But he was " separate." There was a want of his 
being not yet met. There was in his spirit, in waiting 
to be developed, the germ of an affection pure, sacred, 
and next to his love for his Maker, the noblest. To 
this the companion of his life was found to be the true 
correlate ; and the effect of time and circumstances 
was to beget in his bosom that tenderest of human 
affections, conjugal love, and to ripen it into an ab- 
sorbing passion.^ 

His companion in horticulture (the aesthetic depart- 
ment was hers, of course) seemed strangely a part of 
himself. This love was a reason for marriage : and the 
Lord approved, and said, "It is not good for the man 
to be 4 in separation ' ; " and gave her to him as a wife. 
They were married. And as the fact that she was in 
his heart was the reason why she should be his wife, 
the nearest approach to the representation of the heart 
by symbol was to take one of the ribs that covered 
the heart, and make of it a wife. And the import of 

* "Deep sleep " is not the proper rendering. The Septua- 
gint renders it exaraaiv. Simonis defines the word " Sopivit, 
ixTawois" It implies a bewildered state of the mind. Adam 
was entranced, in other words, was deeply in love. 



THE FALL. 41 

the story is, that unlike the brutes, in man the animal 
appetencies are made to be the handmaids of conjugal 
love. 

The question of a period somewhat extended before 
marriage affects our opinion of the Fall. During this 
period the parties were living in God's world, and 
under the divine government. They could not but 
sustain moral responsibilities. They had duties, and 
those were performed. They had, therefore, a moral 
character. They w r ere holy. The only escape from 
this conclusion would be in the hypothesis that they 
were too infantile for moral character. But this sup- 
position is forbidden by the fact that they intelligently 
cultivated the garden, also Adam gave names to the 
various animals. The Fall, then, was from a " holy 
and happy state," not of created but of acquired 
holiness. 

We proceed, then, on the assumption that the repre- 
sentation is allegorical. Constitutionally moral agents, 
the Primal Pair were placed under the conditions of 
moral government. Their responsibilities grew out of 
their relations to themselves and their personal welfare 
to each other and to God ; and also out of the rela- 
tions of the present, with its excited susceptibili- 
ties demanding instant gratification, to the ultimate 
highest welfare. They were visited personally by 
their Creator in human form, and while receiving 
from him a rule of conduct, were assured that per- 
fect obedience to it would bring to them great and 
increasing happiness. The fruit of righteousness 
would be a tree of life, whose supplies, ever accessible, 
would be found exhaustless. Hence the allegorical 



42 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

representation of a " Tree of Life," in the midst of the 
garden, of which they might freely eat. 

Disobedience would be followed by other and dif- 
ferent consequences. Abnormal itself, it would in- 
duce upon them an abnormal and diseased condition 
of both body and mind. The original platform of 
perfect obedience to a perfect law, and unalloyed hap- 
piness the result, would be abandoned. The annihila- 
tion of their being would not follow, nor the entire 
absence of happiness. A mixture of good and evil 
would ensue, and become their habitual experience. 
By disobedience they would eat of the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil. This is not threatened 
penalty, but a prediction of what would be the effect. 
In the day thou eatest thereof, thou wilt destroy thy- 
self. The Septuagint renders it in the middle voice. 

The argument and persuasion of the serpent present 
to us the philosophy of temptation. Has God said, 
" Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Has 
he placed an arbitrary restriction upon your enjoyment 
of the good things which he himself has created for 
your use? You must have misunderstood the com- 
mand. He loves you, and delights in your happiness. 
Ye may then eat of all the trees of the garden. Ye 
will not surely be destroyed by your own act." (Pual.) 

Questions of Right and Wrong are among the most 
difficult ever submitted to the human mind. Right 
and wrong imply a law of action ; and that law must 
prescribe to man a conduct fitted to promote the 
highest happiness of himself and others.* But how 

* Vide Appendix A. 



THE FALL. 43 

attain to the knowledge of this law? How, in the first 
place, obtain the knowledge of the law of his own per- 
sonal well being? If left to the light of nature, he can 
obtain it only by a long course of careful experiment. 
He is the subject of appetites and passions that are 
brought into play of necessity by the circumstances of 
his being. These susceptibilities were implanted in his 
constitution by a benevolent Creator, and his happi- 
ness is conditioned upon their gratification. This 
gratification, however, may be inopportune or in 
excess. How learn when it is such? How learn, for 
instance, when eating or drinking is in excess? The 
Bible teaches us not to " be drunk with wine, wherein 
is excess." The gluttonous are put into the same cat- 
egory with the winebibber. The sexual impulses 
are forbidden indulgence, save under the conditions of 
matrimony. Any other is inopportune. So of all the 
impulses of our nature. Even pity may be in excess, 
and charity may be misplaced or ill-timed. Now it is 
obvious that a law that shall be well-defined and thor- 
oughly established in the convictions of the human 
mind as right, cannot but presuppose a long and care- 
fully conducted course of experiments — upon the 
individual as such, and upon the community as such. 
And further, that the law of temperance (in the lar- 
gest sense of the word) could not be defined till excess 
had first been practised, and its consequences experi- 
enced. In the particular of eating, the man may have 
become a dyspeptic, and the subject of a craving for 
food in excess of his needs, before he had established 
the law of temperance in eating ; and for the same 
reason he might have acquired the drunkard's thirst 



44 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

for stimulating drink. So of all the appetites and pas- 
sions. And the community, in its attempt to acquire 
regulative principles, might, must have brought itself 
into the same abnormal and deranged condition. 
Thus all the impulses of our nature would, by an ex- 
cessive indulgence, have acquired strength and power 
over men, that, according to the well-known conditions 
of free agency as right or wrong, would be fearfully pro- 
phetic of a deteriorating future. Of necessity, then, 
it would seem that before man had acquired a knowl- 
edge of a moral law or regulative principle, he would 
have become too depraved constitutionally to be of 
certainty controlled and guided by it ; and before sin, 
as the violation of known law, was part of his history, 
he would have been the victim of depravity, his con- 
stitution deranged and diseased in both body and 
mind. Depravity would be first in order, sin follow 
in train. The depravity would consist in the abnor- 
mal state of the functions, by which the balance and 
symmetry of elements would be destroyed. The appe- 
tencies and impulses would be morbid and deranged, 
some too strong, some too weak ; and as this derange- 
ment would be constitutional, it would, of course, be 
transmitted by the laws of ordinary generation from 
parents to children. 

On the hypothesis of a supernatural revelation of a 
law by the Creator, the case would be modified some- 
what, yet essentially the same principles would obtain. 
No law has ever been given to man which does not sub- 
mit much that is his duty, as a question for his judgment. 
In the texts already quoted, we find this : Wine is 
pronounced good when used properly, but the excessive 



THE FALL. 45 

use is forbidden. Food is a necessity, yet the excessive 
use of it is prohibited. Man is to treat his neighbor 
as he would be treated in his circumstances. In all 
such cases the exercise of judgment is demanded. 
Questions of duty are to be decided on the same principle 
as in the case of those taught only by the light of nature. 
The Scriptures proceed on our theory. The word 
uniformly rendered sin, by our translators (dw«or^), 
will be found sometimes to denote sin, or the violation 
of known law, and sometimes depravity, as explained 
above. John (i John iii. 4) says, uuuotiu (sin), is 
lawlessness, that is, conduct not regulated by law. It 
is simply the negation of law. Paul, in his Epistle to 
the Romans, uses uuuqtIu, sometimes, to express de- 
pravity, and says it is not imputed, that is, the men of 
whom it is predicated are not considered guilty 
where no law is known, or known as applicable to the 
case or acts under consideration. Depravity, he says, 
is " dead" in the absence of law, i. e., dead as sin. 
But when the commandment comes, this depravity is 
irritated and provoked by restraint, and comes to life 
as sin, and involving guilt. He says (ii. 12) that they 
who have acted out their depravity in ignorance of law 
will perish, but without the condemnation of law. 
They will perish (uTiolovvjai) ; they are in an abnormal 
and diseased condition in both body and mind, and 
must perish in their own corruption. But they who 
have acted out their depravity with a knowledge and 
in despite ot law, will be co?zdem?ied as guilty (x£t#?j- 
oovtui) by the law, and suffer the consequences. The 
distinction between depravity Qx>auqtIu) acted out in 
ignorance of law, and the same acted out unrestrained 



46 THE EIBLE REGAINED. 

by known law, is observed throughout this entire Epis- 
tle, and, indeed, throughout the Scriptures. It is no- 
ticeable in the First Epistle of John (iii. 4). The state- 
ment that the sins of the times of ignorance were over- 
looked (vneQidav, Acts xvii. 30) is made on this princi- 
ple. Where there is no law, there is no transgression. 

The heathen, God " gave up," and did not hold them 
amenable to himself. They had no knowledge of God, 
and of course could not be under his moral adminis- 
tration. God suffered them to walk in their own ways ; 
he permitted them to follow the promptings of their de- 
pravity, and did not call them to account as subjects of 
his moral administration, They " perished without 
law" (apofico;). 

There is no evidence that our first parents did not 
fall on our theory. The allegorical representations of 
Gen. ii. and iii. simply imply that Adam and Eve were 
put upon probation, i. e., placed under the moral gov- 
ernment of God, and that they sinned. It tells us 
nothing about the process, except that it was through 
temptation, and on the question of temperance or 
avoiding excess. u Hath God said ye shall not eat of 
every tree of the garden ? " The sin was not till after 
their marriage. Previous to this time they were living 
under the moral government of God, and, of course, 
were holy, and practising on the principle above ex- 
plained. The extent to which " depravity " had grown 
before the guilt of the violation of known law was 
theirs, we are not told. They sinned. 

That the moral character of successive generations 
is formed on the principle that depravity leads to sin, 
will be admitted by all. Constitutional abnormality, 



THE FALL. 47 

whether it be congenital or acquired, is, as is well 
known, transmissible to posterity. But without the as- 
sumption of a deranged constitution, the essential na- 
ture of an infant sustains our theory. He is born with 
animal appetencies and mental impulses, which are 
operative for a long period before reason and con- 
science can be influential. These inferior elements, 
by their exercise, acquire strength, and an increasing 
power to influence the free will, and, in fact, do control 
its acts. When,, by and by, the knowledge of God, as 
a being to whom he is amenable, comes to the mind 
of the child, its first impressions are faint and indis- 
tinct, and their moral influence can be but feeble. 
This — feeblest influence as it is — brought into conflict 
with the momentum already acquired, is overcome. 
Once resisted, the repetition is easier, and soon the force 
of habit is in that direction with positiveness of char- 
acter, and the future decided. This, in the case of 
Christian parents. A parental moral influence, judi- 
ciously exerted, may modify somewhat the else unresist- 
ed course downward ; but it only retards, and deprav- 
ity pursues its way, and retains its control. Not by 
might, nor by power, at the command of mortals, is 
this tendency to be overcome, and the current of the 
soul turned backward. In the case of the children of 
irreligious parents, and especially of the heathen, 
domestic influences accelerate rather than retard the 
fatal current. 

We have seen that the Scriptures employ the same 
term to indicate both depravity and sin, as if the two 
w r ere inseparable, and the latter to follow in train of 
the former. Must not our philosophy lead to the 



48 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

same conclusion ? But could not the first parents of 
the race have been restrained by predicted suffering? 
Such prediction was employed, but without success ; 
and we may ask how it could be otherwise? What 
is predicted evil to one who knows only good? 

Are we, then, to accept the dogma, that sin is the 
means of the greatest good? God forbid ! Yet, that 
depravity and sin are unavoidably incidental to a sys- 
tem for developing the highest type of moral character, 
we may admit. 

The treatment by the Savior of sinners of different 
classes, is in keeping with our hypothesis. The sins 
of those in ignorance, and the sins prompted by im- 
pulses and passions, are treated with comparative len- 
ity. Christ mingled, ate and drank with publicans 
and sinners of that class as comparatively hopeful un- 
der the redemptive influences of his mission. Even 
the woman taken in adultery was treated with great 
tenderness. But to the Scribes and Pharisees, whose 
sins were committed, not under sudden animal or 
mental impulses, but in clear light, and deliberately, 
he addressed the language of terrible severity. The 
publicans and harlots would sooner enter his kingdom 
than they. The great charge against men of every 
class, is not so much that they have sinned, as that 
they do not repent of their sin, and accept the pardon- 
ing mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. This they are 
called upon to do, not from impulse, but as the crea- 
tures of reason and conscience, and of sober estimates 
of duty and privilege. 

We see, then, how temptation could find its way and 
do its work in Paradise. Our first parents were de' 



THE FALL. 49 

ceived and misled. They sinned. The fog, however, 
soon passed away, and they saw things clearly. What 
at the moment half seemed to be desirable to make 
one wise, is now seen to be a violation of a known 
law of right. The consequence is that they are self- 
condemned, and hence ashamed in the presence of 
each other, and resort to weak methods to conceal 
their guilt that are no better than aprons of fig leaves. 
And while they shrink from introspection, and from 
the observation of each other, much more do they 
shrink from the searching eye of their Creator. In 
addition to the derangement resulting from their ex- 
perimental efforts to acquire a knowledge of the law 
that should regulate their moral conduct, if such there 
were, they now knew the maddening effect of conscious 
guilt ; they have wounded conscience. Not only so, 
they are alienated from God, and he has become, not 
indeed their enemy, but a friend displeased ; the Friend 
in whom they must live, and move, and have their be- 
ing. They have sundered their friendly relations to 
God, their Creator and Preserver. The weak and silly 
efforts to conceal their sin from God, and to blind their 
own eyes to the perception of it, are only what have 
been repeated by all their descendants. 

The nature of the serpent fits him, above every 
other creature, to stand as the impersonation of temp- 
tation. And the curse pronounced upon him is virtu- 
ally a brand of infamy upon the tempter in every age. 
Shame and everlasting contempt is, and must be, his 
doom. That the curse came upon the woman and the 
serpent in connection, would seem to imply, what is 
so obviously the fact, that maternity, much more than 
4 



50 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

paternity, is responsible for the character of the race, 
as inheritors of depravity. The idiosyncrasy of the 
child is from the mother chiefly, while at the earliest 
period of its young life the mother wields a greater 
influence than all the world beside, for good or for 
evil. The mother of all living was told that her own, 
and the life of her posterity, would be one of conflict 
with # temptation. The power to harm would be per- 
sistently active for their destruction. She had opened 
upon them the flood-gates of evil. There was, in- 
deed, left to her and them a constitutional appre- 
ciation of Right and a Conscience, and these would 
carry on the conflict with temptation. On the one 
hand, temptation would lie concealed along the path- 
way of life, and unexpectedly strike his fangs into the 
foot of man ; and, on the other hand, man, in his 
method, would crush the head of the tempter. Life 
would thus be a conflict, and the one would do the 
other, each in his own natural way, all the evil he 
could. Sometimes temptation would be resisted. 
Sometimes the seed of the woman would find the 
fang and the deadly poison of the serpent in his veins. 
This language is often quoted as if a promise of the 
Savior. We see in it no such import. In it there is 
no intimation of victory on the part of man. The 
bite of the serpent is as fatal to man, as is the stroke 
of man to the serpent. Indeed, the advantage is rather 
on the part of the serpent. He sees and avoids his 
enemy, unless he has the power to harm him, but him- 
self is not seen, nor his presence recognized, till he has 
inflicted the mortal wound. The anger of the wounded 
man towards his assailant does not neutralize the poison 



THE FALL. 5 1 

that is in his veins, or save him from death. It did 
not avert from Adam or Eve the fatal evils that must 
follow in the train of sin, to reproach the tempter. 
Adam was told that sorrow and toil were to be his por- 
tion. The very earth was cursed for his sake ; and 
finally he was driven from the garden, with its spon- 
taneous production of sustenance, to till the reluctant 
soil for a livelihood. He was expelled from the Gar- 
den of Eden, and the tree of life guarded against his 
approach, because " he could not" (improperly ren- 
dered " lest he ") put forth his hand, and eat and live 
forever. That is, he has fallen from the platform of 
life by law, and now, as a transgressor of law, he can- 
not go back to his former state. By deeds of law he 
cannot now be saved. 

No sooner had the darkness of the Fall settled down 
on our first parents, than there arose upon them the 
dawn of the Sun of Righteousness. When it is said that 
God made for them garments of skins, and clothed 
them, this great fact is implied. Their consciousness 
of guilt was represented by the feeling that they were 
naked, and they gave this as a reason why they hid 
themselves from the presence of the Lord when he 
came into the garden. All that they could do by way 
of correcting the evil of their case as sinners was to 
make for themselves their poor apologies represented 
by aprons of fig leaves, which even in their own esti- 
mation were not such protection that they dared to 
appear in the presence of the Lord. They could not 
clothe themselves for " audience with the Deity," as 
we their posterity cannot. But they were " clothed 
upon," that the shame of their nakedness did not ap- 



52 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

pear. God must, in some method, have assured them 
that " to God there belong mercies and forgivenesses." 

Attired with this conviction, they were reassured. 
With Eve this doctrine of forgiveness and peace was 
practical. God had clothed her with the garments of 
salvation, he had covered her with the robe of right- 
eousness. Here begins the history of the " Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world." In this brief 
text " the righteousness of God" is first "witnessed" 
(Rom. iii. 21), which was "manifested" in perfect 
distinctness in the gospel. 

The evils that Adam and Eve were told would 
come upon them as sinners, were not represented as 
penalty or punishment in any sort. They followed 
by a law T of their constitutional being. Indeed, they 
were to subserve the purposes of their reformation 
and salvation as disciplinary. So of the announce- 
ment, " Thou shalt surely die." It is simply future, — 
" Thou wilt." It was not minatory, as threatening 
penalty. They were told what would be the conse- 
quences of their act. The Septuagint employs the 
, middle voice : u Ye will destroy yourselves." 

The interpretation of chapters ii. and iii. as an alle- 
gory does not affect their theological import. Man, 
at his creation, was placed under a moral government ; 
he sinned, he became depraved, and that depravity 
passes to his posterity, who inherit it by the laws of 
natural generation. 

What estimate shall we place upon the Fall? We 
think the language ordinarily employed fails to repre- 
sent the case. From what did our first parents fall? 



THE FALL. 53 

They were, at their creation, simply human beings, 
with the capacity to develop a moral character when 
placed under moral influences. They were subjected 
to those influences, and, so far as we can see, in cir- 
cumstances the most favorable possible for developing 
their character in symmetry and beauty. We say 
possible, for we must keep in mind the unavoidable 
difficulties and dangers incident to the formation of a 
moral character. So far as we are informed, there 
was no promise of special assistance in aid of their 
constitutional capabilities. They stood alone, and 
alone bore the responsibilities of judgment and choice. 
They were not informed of the. bearing of their acts 
upon a remote future. They were told that in case of 
disobedience they w T ould die — to their present condi- 
tion. They would be removed from it, as we are all 
removed from this life to another and different, by 
death. They would fall from the platform of law and 
of unalloyed good as the consequence of obedience. 
They would be " dead in trespasses and sins." Temp- 
tation and conflicting motives they of course had, as 
is implied in the very idea of moral acts, and the 
formation thus of a moral character. They might, by 
a course of obedience, have acquired such a force of 
habit in the right, and found such rich fruitions in a 
life of holiness and communion with God, that they 
would have been confirmed educationally in such a 
life. But always up to the time of such stability of 
character, they would have been liable to swerve from 
the right. How long before such stability had been 
possible, we are not told. In our day, we find that the 
longest lives of Christians, such from their childhood, 



54 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

are not sufficient ; and we have no authority to sup- 
pose that had the temptation which prevailed in Para- 
dise been resisted, some other would not have proved 
fatal — some obfuscated logic, or some sudden impulse. 

So of their posterity. Every child that should be 
born to them would come into being under the same, 
or rather greater liabilities. The power of the intel- 
lect to judge of right would be very much less, while 
the impulses that proverbially govern childhood would 
be strong ; and, in the absence of any promised aid, 
left to themselves it could not be — so it seems to us — 
but they would violate the perfect law. In the earli- 
est period of childhood moral character must be found 
in acts shaded only in the slightest degree with good 
or evil. Yet the least tinge of wrong would violate 
the condition of life, and incur the consequence fore- 
told. As in the case of the Original Pair, so with 
each and every one of their posterity, if hope fastened 
upon any good, near or remote, in the future, the real- 
ization would, as under a purely legal dispensation, 
depend entirely upon themselves. • If under any pres- 
sure of motives, any degree of excitement, logic should 
be jostled, and the choice, as a consequence, deviate 
from the straight line of rectitude, though by an angle 
less than any assignable quantity, all the sweetness of 
hope would be turned into bitterness, its light go put 
in darkness. Who would not prefer, infinitely prefer, 
our condition under a gracious and forgiving system, 
even with all our inherited depravity, to that of 
Paradise? 

And who can for a moment suppose that such be- 
ings as are, and from the first were, the human race, 



THE FALL. 55 

would be placed under a moral government, into 
which, as a primal element, forgiveness and restoration 
did not enter. The after-thought of a reparative 
governmental commercial atonement is all out of har- 
mony with the facts of the case. It is from the dark 
ages, and would not enter as an element into a well- 
written fiction of our own times. 

The very language of Gen. ii. 17, " The day in which 
you mayor shall eat" (&v cfuyrje^ Sept.), implies the 
expectation that they would eat. The protasis with 
luv, and the subjective, represents a supposition, the 
accomplishment of which is expected by the speaker. 
(Vide Runner' s Greek Grammar, § 339, ii. (b.), also 
Hadley's Greek Grammar.) 

Our First Parents sinned — " fell." Into what state? 
They fell into the same arms of love that had borne 
them from their creation. They had the same heart 
of a heavenly Father on which to depend, and they 
were still within the same moral government as be- 
fore, some of whose elements had not till now been 
put in requisition, viz., reclaiming methods, forgiving 
mercy to the penitent, and a reconciliation that was 
complete, and though oft required and oft repeated, 
was yet complete, and without alienation or " upbraid- 
ing." As before, perfect obedience to a perfect law 
was required, but with a multitude of tender mercies for 
the penitent offender. 

That mercy and restoration is an essential element 
in the moral government of God, we may infer, not 
only from the character of God and the testimony of 
the Scriptures, but from t the analogy of nature. Re- 
pairs and restoration are prominent in nature's pro- 



56 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

cesses. The wounded tree is healed, and in animal 
life the wounded body. In social life the penitence 
of the offender is a reason for forgiveness and recon- 
ciliation. The man is a monster who does not, from 
the heart, forgive the transgression of his penitent 
neighbor. Does nature repair the breach and teach 
us thus a lesson on repairs and recovery, and has God 
made man such that repair of a moral breach and 
restoration follows in the train of repentance, and yet 
his own heart not act on the principle which his hand 
practises, and which is the duty and glory of men to 
practise? As I feel, and intuitively assume, that by 
repentance I shall and must be forgiven by my fellow- 
men made in the image of God, so do I intuitively as- 
sume that when I go to my heavenly Father in peni- 
tence and tears the wound will be healed, and I be 
reconciled to God, and God to me. The good man 
is waiting to be reconciled to his fellow-man. So God 
is waiting to be gracious. And in that divine moral 
government that came from the heart of God, mercy 
and forgiveness for the penitent must be an element. 
And so we find it. No sooner had the Primal Pair 
sinned, and as a consequence shrunk from the eye of 
God, and resorted to fig-leaf excuses, than they learned 
the great fact that they might approach their Maker. 
God made them substantial garments in which to 
appear in his presence and not be ashamed. They 
had access to a " multitude of tender mercies." The 
work of Christ was not the basis on which this pro- 
ceeding rested. This rather was the foundation, and 
that the structure reared upon it. From God above, 
all the way down through all the moral relations of his 
creatures, penitence and forgiveness go hand in hand. 



THE FALL. 57 

The theory that this intellectually Infant Pair were 
instructed on the philosophy of government, and the 
method in which "penalty" (which happens not to 
be an element in a moral government) could be dis- 
pensed with, and then told of a Savior who, at some re- 
mote period of the future, should come into the world 
and make a commercial atonement, and that they, if they 
would believe it, and have " faith " in it, could draw 
upon this bounty in advance, and be forgiven ; — this 
theory is among the strange things that great and good 
men have believed, but which will not go into the 
twentieth century. 

We cannot prove that the infant offspring of our 
First Parents encountered other difficulties in their in- 
"ceptive moral developments than would have been 
theirs had not the parents fallen. Perhaps these diffi- 
culties were greater, for abnormal mental states re- 
sult in abnormal physical conditions ; and this last is 
transmitted, furnishing thus not different unfavoring 
influences to infant condition, but greater strength to 
the same. 

The Apostle (Rom. v. 12-21) compares the bless- 
ings we receive through grace with the evils that 
come through Adam and his one offence. The former 
he represents as the greater beyond all comparison. 
The theory above expressed renders the Apostle's es- 
timate obvious. 

The view sometimes taken that the Fall of Adam 
was an unspeakable calamity to the race, dashing in 
pieces the great scheme by which they could be in the 
highest degree glorified ; and that Christ and a re- 
demptive work came as an afterthought, and as the 



58 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

next best arrangement possible, is not in the highest 
degree honorable to God, or consistent with a true 
philosophy. And we are willing to run the risk of 
proposing the inquiry, Whether it be possible to 
give existence to a race of moral beings, who should, 
in successive generations, enter upon the stage of life 
in infancy, and develop a moral character without ir- 
regular and abnormal action, with deranged functions 
of mind, and as a consequence, of body ? Could they 
else know good and evil, and be able to appreciate 
either? "Who are these that are arrayed in white 
robes? These are they who came out of great tribu- 
lation, and have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the cleansing efficacy of the blood of the 
Lamb." We nowhere find the Scriptures deploring 
the calamity that befell the race in the Fall, but every- 
where full of the great idea that God is supremely 
glorified in saving the fallen. I cannot but believe 
that Christ is so great and glorious a Savior that he 
can more than repair the ruins of the Fall, — " from 
seeming evil still educing good." There will, as a 
consequence of the fall of man, and through the 
methods of saving him, be made a manifestation more 
rich and full of the character of God, than could else 
be made; and that richness and fullness all , given to 
men, will by them, as " imitators of God, as dear 
children," be incorporated into their own character. 
When the Christian can say, "I live, no longer I, but 
Christ liveth in me," it is more than for him to say, 
" God, as a righteous, moral governor, liveth in me." 
And also, the difficulties in our way to heaven placed 
there by the Fall, the steep ascent to be climbed by 



THE FALL. 59 

arduous and persistent toil, beget a character stronger 
and more effective, and in greater amount. More, 
and of richer quality, goes the saint to heaven in Jesus 
Christ. 

The theory that after the Fall the original govern- 
ment was abandoned, and a gracious economy intro- 
duced in its place by Jesus Christ, conducted on other 
and different principles, has led to disastrous conse- 
quences. It has misrepresented God, — his character 
and government ; Christ — his work as a Savior, and 
his relations to God and his government, and to man. 
It has slandered the heart of God, as if unsympathiz- 
ing, unpi tying, sternly severe, and inexorable. It has 
slandered the heart of Christ, as if of effeminate ten- 
derness, that scarcely stood by a just and holy God. It 
has led to the doctrine of penalty as an element in the 
divine moral administration that was inconsistent with 
forgiveness, and to the monstrous theory of the vica- 
rious suffering of the penalty by an innocent mediator 
as the condition on which the guilty can escape it, or 
even any efforts be made for their reclamation. It 
dishonors God, that he should exact such conditions, 
and man, that he should accept them. If I were justly 
condemned to death at a civil tribunal, and some friend 
should, without my knowledge, offer to die in my 
stead, and the government should accept the offer and 
inflict the penalty, and then pardon me, I should think 
my friend might be insane, and should be sure the 
government was selfish and unprincipled, and willing 
to support its authority in disregard of the great prin- 
ciple of right ; and I should go through the remain- 
der of my life unable to enjoy that life, and humiliated 



60 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

that I should have been pardoned on such condi- 
tions. 

It has led to the doctrine of the Trinity, and of dif- 
ferent divine actors in the drama, and thus to going 
half way with the heathen in the direction of " gods 
many and lords many." I know of but one God, an 
infinite Unit, without the possibility of a reduction to 
fractions. That God manifests himself to me in meth- 
ods multitudinous, but especially in that mysterious 
and divine Being, the Messiah, " my Lord and my 
God." I know of but one divine government, and 
that the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, not one 
element in it that was not in it from the beginning, 
and in waiting to be developed as occasion should re- 
quire. The distinction between the original govern- 
ment of God and the gracious administration of Jesus 
Christ is without foundation, save in the fullness of 
manifestation. The divine government is, and ever 
was, Christ's, and everything else relating to us is 
Christ's. All that God has done for us he has done 
" according to the eternal purpose which he purposed 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

The theory of penalty as an element in the original 
divine government, and the consequent necessity of a 
vicarious suffering of that penalty as the condition of 
the pardon, under Jesus Christ, of the transgressor, 
virtually annihilates " Our Heavenly Father," and con- 
verts the Deity into an executive magistrate, and as 
such officially heartless, and compelled by the iron 
necessities of the penal law of the original govern- 
ment to be inexorable to penitence, and to deal gra- 
ciously with transgressors only on the conditions of a 
commercial equivalent — scarcely mercy at all. Such 



THE FALL. 6 1 

a God, sternly just with reference to such a law, and 
his heart in his work, could have little sympathy with 
men as weak, and little pity for them as sinners. The 
sinner, on the other hand, must be afraid of him, and 
scarcely able to love him. The interposition of a 
u Second Person " as a merciful Savior, who pities the 
fallen and weeps over their sins, and can suffer and 
die to save them, only intensifies the representation 
above. The light of the Savior's countenance only 
makes darker the face of the stern Deity. 

It may be said that the Scriptures are full of the 
representations of the parental character of God. Cer- 
tainly, and the inference is, not that our criticisms upon 
the theory in question are not legitimate, but that 
such representations should have forbidden the ob- 
jectionable theory. 

This erroneous theory has led to a misinterpretation 
of the language applied to God in the Old Testament. 
God, as the theocratic administrator, is often called a 
King, and the language employed of him, as such, is 
borrowed from that applied to earthly monarchs. 
These were tyrannical and wrathful, and treated their 
subjects as if possessed of no rights, and to be used 
only as things. This monarchical phraseology is ap- 
plied to God. This w r as divinely permitted, doubtless, 
as adapted to produce the best effect upon the men of 
that day. The mistake now is, to attach to such terms 
as wrath, vengeance, fury, &c, the meaning of the 
present day. The effect is to misrepresent the char- 
acter of God. We should do injustice to those kings 
even, to judge of them by the standard, and in the 
light of the present. Much more is this true of 
God. 



62 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

The writer is aware that to some of his breth en, 
and especially to those upon whose heads is the 
" crown of glory," the representations above may 
seem to smack of something not quite savory, and to 
be wanting in the positiveness and spicy flavor of 
well-seasoned Orthodoxy. What is wanting? Noth- 
ing has been said not in harmony with the theory that 
since the Fall of Adam the race have been, without 
exception, sinners, and that sin, once introduced to the 
human mind, perpetuates itself, and is interrupted in 
its course of self-propagation only by a special divine 
interposition which secures repentance and faith. This 
is true of all who live and develop a moral character 
in this world ; and We incline to the theory that the 
same will be true of those who die in infancy, and 
develop a moral character in Hades. Depravity 
(& t u(xQTla) attaches not merely to the animal body, but 
to the spiritual body also, and we think to the soul.* 

*My physiological theory of man is as follows : There is 
a natural body (ow^a ipv%ixov), and there is a spiritual body 
(ooif.ia nvsv^aTixov). The two constitute the present machin- 
ery of the soul. The effect of death is to throw off the grosser 
part, and to develop and bring into new uses for the mind 
the more subtile. While this more ethereal body is not now 
cognizable by the senses, there is evidence of its existence 
and some of its functions. Its connection with the soul is 
more intimate and direct than that of the grosser organism. 
It goes with the soul to the future world, and is there its me- 
dium of connection with the surrounding world of matter 
and mind. 

We have said that by sin was induced upon man an ab- 
normal state, mental and physical. That this abnormality 
would belong to the spiritual body follows from its more 



THE FALL. 63 

And why should not moral character be brought out 
there by essentially the same process as here, and under 
the same liabilities? All infants, we believe, are saved. 
But will they, in heaven, be a class generically distinct 
from the rest of us who are saved ? or will they, as 
we, be saved as penitent and forgiven. 

I have not designed to incorporate, even by indirec- 
tion, the theory of sin, which makes the slightest sin 
of the scarcely morally conscious child, as in such 
sense an infinite evil that the perpetrator does really 
and truly deserve, and may justly suffer as a penalty, 
eternal and infinite anguish. This is an item in the 
hyperbolic theology of our venerable fathers that the 
cultivated hearts and minds of the present day cannot 
take along into the future. It is simply an ethical 
fiction, and is no more a part of the gospel of Christ 
than are the " Arabian Nights." We think that the 
piety of our fathers, so earnest and intense, yet so lurid 

intimate connection with the mind, and, going with the 
spirit to the future world, it would take its derangements with 
it. These, therefore, would furnish additional difficulties in 
the way of developing a right moral character in the case of 
the infant, and indeed of all others. This is the uuaoria of Paul 
— depravity that has come to us from Adam, a blessing or a 
curse, according to the use we make of the severity of moral 
discipline it implies. That its effect should be, in the case 
of the infant first developing a moral character in the future 
world, those shadings of unholiness that would place him 
in need of a Savior's forgiving love to him, as a penitent, is 
certainly supposable. So that he, too, like those who sin 
and repent in this world, could praise Him who "nad washed 
him from his sins in his own blood" — the child of Adam 
saved by Christ. 



64 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

and melancholy, will never give place to a piety that 
is equally earnest and intense, and solemn and humble, 
yet glad, hopeful, expectant, elastic, the joy of the 
Lord its strength, — the piety of Paul, not of David 
Brainard, — till a different opinion is entertained of 
the character and governmental administration of 
God, — till he is seen in very deed our "Heavenly 
Father," and his government parental, — till the ge- 
neric element of his character is seen and felt to be not 
Justice but Love. 



THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 65 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 

WE are now to consider the human race in its 
infancy. Its knowledge, its virtues, and its 
vices were infantile, — emphatically so at first, but be- 
coming less and less so as we advance. God ap- 
peared to them personally, and in the form of a man. 
Of course they were impressed with the idea of his 
superiority, and to some extent of his greatness. It 
would seem- that these personal appearances near the 
residence of our first parents were frequent or habit- 
ual. When Cain was sentenced to banishment from 
the neighborhood of the family, he spoke of it as going 
out from the presence of the Lord. As if God was 
to be seen there, and his blessing there enjoyed. 
These manifestations were essentially the same as 
what in the New Testament is called the Logos, or 
God as revealed. The government of God over the 
infant race was parental and unofficial, adapted to 
their capacity and varying with their wants. From 
this kind of intercourse we think originated the prac- 
tice of offering sacrifices. These were festive, and the 
God-man was present as a guest (See. Gen. xviii. 1-8). 
In this kind of intercourse there grew up in the heart 
of Abel a tender and confiding love for God. The 

5 



66 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

effect upon his brother was different. Hence Abeh 
offered more excellent sacrifices than Cain (nlelova, 
Heb. xi. 4). It was this confidence and love that the 
Apostle calls "faith." 

This personal and parental government of God over 
men extends through the antediluvian and patriarchal 
periods. There is no hint of an organized govern- 
ment, with its laws made known and to be obeyed. 
Indeed this principle of divine administration is 
scarcely modified during the entire ante-Messianic 
period. The national government of Israel was like 
the governments of that day, personal and not consti- 
tutional. The will of the king was the law, and the 
only law known. The Theocracy was in no sort an 
organized moral government; — though the moral 
element entered into it more and more with the prog- 
ress of time and civilization. The " Kingdom of 
God " begins with the administration of the Messiah. 
Previous to that the divine moral government was 
personal, specific, and local, and confined for the most 
part to " Abraham and his seed." The other nations 
were " given up," and suffered to walk in their own 
ways ; " their sins were " winked at " (Acts xvii. 30), 
and " passed over" (Rom. iii. 25). Nothing that can 
be called a Redemptive System for the race was in 
existence till Christ came, — save in the eternal coun- 
sels of God. 

We think the religious character of the Antedilu- 
vians has been greatly overestimated. It seems to be 
assumed by commentators that Adam and the patri- 
archs in the genealogical list were, of course, good 
men. 



THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 67 

* That Adam became a penitent, is assumed without, 
or rather in the face of, evidence. The last that we 
know of the manifestation of character in him, was an 
attempt to hide himself, in conscious guilt, from the 
presence of his Maker. And when arraigned face to 
face, he apologized for his sin, by laying the blame 
upon his wife ; and not only so, he insinuated that the 
blame was in God himself. " The woman whom thou 
gavest to be with me." When at a later period there 
were some religious services in his family, and when he, 
as the patriarch, or head of the family, should have 
officiated as its priest, he took no part in the worship. 
The allusions to him in the Scriptures are in keeping 
with the obvious import of these facts (Job xxxi. 33, 
if this be an allusion to him; Rom. v. 12, seq. ; 1 
Cor. xv. 21.) 

The religious character of Eve cannot be doubted. 
Her spirit is gentle and subdued, and she seems to rec- 
ognize God in the events of her life. When that won- 
derful fact, the miracle of all ages, the birth of a child 
first occurred, she says, " I have gotten a man-child 
from Jehovah himself" (Sept. 8lCh tov Oeov, emphatic). 
The name of Abel (breath, vanity) may show her 
estimate of the value she attached to life and its rela- 
tions. Cain may have developed a character that 
gave her grief. And when, after the death of her son 
Abel, another son was born, she called him Seth 
(appointed), " for," she said, " God hath appointed me 
another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." In 
all these religious allusions, nothing is said of her 
husband. 

That Abel had genuine faith in God, the Apostle 



68 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

assures us (Heb. xi. 4). He died without family. 
The only evidence that his younger brother Seth was 
of similar character, is in the fact that the public wor- 
ship of God was discontinued by his son.* There is 
a presumption that Enos attempted to maintain that 
worship in imitation of his father's example. The 
name Enos, or Enosh (weakness), would seem to im- 
ply that his father had a presentiment, from his inde- 
cision and want of firmness, that he would be carried 
away by the fatal tide. 

We hear nothing further of religion in the world 
for nearly four hundred years, w T hen it is said of Enoch, 
that " he walked with God." The Apostle informs us 
that he w T as translated. What were the influences that 
led him to walk with God, we are not informed. The 
entire line of his ancestors were living at the time. He 
may have learned some truth from them, which God 
used for his sanctification. The Apostle Jude, after 
enumerating a fearful catalogue of sins in his own 
day, adds, that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was 
inspired to administer reproof and threatening to the 
men of his day as guilty of the same sins. But that 
he was taken away in the midst of life, may imply 
that his influence as a good man would be of no avail 
on earth. 

* brftH rendered " men began " (vi. 26)," is from brn, whose 
cognates suggest, first, to stick in mire, oblicesit 171 Into, then 
to delay, stop. Hophal, to be stopped or prevented. It is 
third person singular. He, Enos, left off, or was deterred 
from worshipping Jehovah. The Septuagint makes the word 
third person singular, but employs a more remotely derived 
meaning from the root, — ovrog i]2.7Zioev t7nxaX^ia&ui to oroua 
xvqIov toO Beuv. Our translators supposed the word from bbn. 



THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 69 

After Enoch, there is no mention of religious charac- 
ter till we come to Noah. He was born about seventy 
years after the translation of Enoch. That some in- 
fluences would reach him from the life, and the privi- 
leged termination of the life of so good a man, we 
may assume. The language of his father, in which 
he expresses the hope of relief from some of the toil 
demanded by the reluctant earth, may refer to the 
fact, if it be such, that Noah evinced in early life a 
love for and skill in the employments that distinguished 
him after the flood as a husbandman. He was a just 
man, and walked with God. 

The sixth chapter opens with a brief history of the 
deterioration of the race. As soon as the inhabitants 
had multiplied on the face of the earth the law of 
physical violence obtained. The motto that might is 
right, seems to have been accepted as law. There 
were giants in those days. They were called " sons 
of the Elohim ; " a term afterwards used in the He- 
brew Scriptures to represent men distinguished by 
office or power. These men, among other methods, 
employed their strength for the practice of polygamy. 
They saw the daughters of men, how fair they were, 
" and they took them wives, of all which they chose. " 
Violence and lust gave character to the times. The 
earth was corrupt before God, and filled w T ith vio- 
lence. The wickedness of man was great ; every 
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only 
evil continually. 

All hope of reformation, or any improvement under 
an administration such as it was the pleasure of God 
to employ at that time, was gone. Deterioration was 



7<3 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

the prominent feature of the times. They were, there- 
fore, removed to another and different mode of exist- 
ence, to the world of spirits, where, at least, the lust 
of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, 
would not be operative for their destruction. They 
were swept from the earth to await in Hades whatever 
the justice or the mercy of God might have in reserve 
for them. To us — what was then a mystery — it is 
revealed that the Messiah, after having performed his 
work in the flesh, for us that are in the flesh, went in 
his spiritual nature, on the same great errand of mercy, 
to those spirits in prison, — being Lord of both the 
living and the dead, and administering his gracious 
government over both worlds. 

A profound mystery hangs over the antediluvian 
period. Why was it such? There was recognized 
by the men of that day, the great central fact of the 
Redemptive system, that God would forgive, and be 
reconciled to the penitent sinner. Eve, Abel, Enoch, 
and Noah understood this. But, so far as we know, 
this was all. No revelation of a future state, with 
awards of good or evil, was made ; no promises of 
sustaining grace ; no covenant securities, no bright 
.future of the present life even, as a consequence of 
their fidelity to duty and God ; no ecclesiastical organ- 
ization, by which the good might be mutually helpful ; 
and, what is surprising, there was, as we have said, 
no organized civil government. Indeed, the prompt- 
ings of a just indignation, originating in the sympathy 
of man with his fellow, and urging to the infliction 
of evil upon the perpetrator of crime, were to be sup- 
pressed. Cain was aware, his own nature taught 



THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 71 

him, that to slay him as the murderer of his own 
godly brother, was a dictate of nature. Yet God ex- 
pressly forbade any retaliatory or punitive inflictions. 

There is no evidence that the Sabbath was enjoined, 
or that marriage was the subject of any precept. That 
there was but a single pair created, might seem to 
imply, that the relation was between one man and one 
woman. But logical inferences from facts, are not 
positive precepts. Sacrifices were offered from the 
first. They were evidently festive, and as we have 
said, God was probably present in human form, to 
share in the entertainment, and to teach the truth, that 
all their good things were his gift, and that they should 
love, and obey, and trust him, as their Preserver and 
Benefactor. Sacrifices, however, soon ceased. And 
the race, increasing in numbers with great rapidity, 
were acting under the light of nature merely. And 
what was the light of nature to them? The nature of 
things was not to the men of that day what it is to us. 
They saw things, certainly at first, as children see 
them, isolated, and with their relations unrecognized, 
and their uses but inadequately appreciated; No 
astronomer's eye measured the heavens above, no 
geologist explored the earth beneath. They had, in- 
deed, rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling 
their hearts with food and gladness, and should have 
been thankful to the Giver. But, alas, their foolish 
heart was darkened. 

We are inclined to regard the chronology of the 
antediluvian period, generally accepted at the present 
day, as incorrect. The word rendered years, signifies 
iteration, repetition, and would apply to recurring 



72 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

periods of any length. The idea of a year of three 
hundred and sixty-five days, implies a knowledge of 
astronomy not possessed by the men of that period. 
The most natural division, next to days, would be 
moons or months. There is historic evidence that the 
Egyptians counted time by months in the earliest ages. 
Subsequently the year was divided into three periods, 
spring, summer, and winter, three years in one. At a 
still later period, into two, summer and winter. Sup- 
posing die antediluvian chronological periods to be 
months, the lives of the patriarchs are so reduced as 
to conform to what Moses says of the age of man 
(Ps. xc. 19). The age of Methuselah would be 
eighty years and nine months, of Adam seventy-seven 
years and six months, and so of the others. Later we 
apply the periods three and then twx) to one year, and 
the lives of the postdiluvian patriarchs conform to 
our theory of the life of man. For example, Abra- 
ham died at the age of eighty-seven years and six 
months. Physiology forbids the supposition of such 
longevity ; and there is every reason to suppose the 
climatic condition the same before as since the flood. 

We find Josephus and some of the early paraphrasts, 
attempting to adjust the dates of the birth of the 
first child of the antediluvians to what would seem 
reasonable, by transferring one hundred years from 
the life before marriage to the subsequent period. 
This error corrected, and our theory might apply to 
the facts in the case. 

That the flood was universal, and covered the entire 
planet, was formerly believed, and previous to the days 
of geological science it was supposed that the traces 



THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 73 

of it were found in what was seen everywhere as the 
effects of water. That theory is now abandoned. 
That the flood was local is now doubted by few. It 
was doubtless the effect of one of those depressions 
of the crust of the earth, of which there have been so 
many ; the converse of what occurred just before the 
creation of our First Parents, and by which the fertile 
soil of Eden w r as prepared. 

It is a question whether the flood extended so far as 
to destroy the entire race. If we adopt the modern 
year as the measure of time, it is evident that the num- 
ber of inhabitants was at the time of the flood immensely 
great. Whiston estimates it at about four hundred and 
fifty thousand millions. Cockburn at thirteen billions. 
These opinions must appear to us fabulous. Yet, 
from the length of antediluvian life, and of the period 
of procreation, w r e cannot set the number at a very 
low figure. Hence they must have spread themselves 
over a very large territory, and as their habits were 
nomadic, they would wander far in every direction. 

The Chinese have history that ascends beyond the 
flood by several centuries. The reliability of that his- 
tory may be inferred from the fact, that a solar eclipse 
is recorded as early as B. C. 2159, which is more than 
one hundred years before the birth of Abraham, or 
one hundred and forty years only after the flood. Sci- 
ence verifies the correctness of this record. This 
same history gives the names of emperors, with the 
dates of their reign, from a period of more than five 
hundred years before the flood. In support of the 
same hypothesis is the unique character of the Chinese 
language. It can claim no affinity with either the 
Aryan or Semitic languages. 



74 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

There is nothing in the language of the inspired 
record that would forbid the supposition, that a colo- 
ny, or colonies, of the antediluvians might have made 
their way across the steppes of Central Asia, and 
found a home congenial to their nomadic habits in 
the rich plains of China. They would go there the 
descendants of fallen Adam, and share in the effects 
and liabilities that follow in train of the Fall. It 
is possible that the mysteries of the American conti- 
nent may find solution in this hypothesis. 

That there are nations whose early history reaches 
back very near to the flood, and whose inhabitants 
were so numerous that it would seem impossible they 
could be descendants of Noah (Jahn's Hist. Heb. 
Com. p. 15), seems to be well authenticated. 

What was the design of the antediluvian period? 
What the object to be accomplished by it? Not moral 
culture ; not to prepare its swarming millions to con- 
stitute a happy community in the future world. If we 
accept the common chronology, the number that lived 
was, as we have seen, immense. Why were they 
born? Indeed, the same may be said of most of the 
race to the present day. Half that are born die in in- 
fancy, and of those who come to the age of moral 
character a small fraction only are holy. Why were 
they born ? Can it be that this world is only a nur- 
sery in which to originate and multiply the germs that 
shall be transplanted and grow to maturity in a differ- 
ent soil and clime? Could there have been any mean- 
ing in this direction in the command, " Be fruitful, 
and multiply, and replenish the earth," while on the 
other hand it is said, " In the future world they neither 
marry nor are given in marriage"? 



THE ANTEDILUVIAN PERIOD. 75 

On the banks of some of our mighty rivers may be 
seen, at certain seasons, little pools, in which are a 
countless multitude of the veriest germs of piscine 
life. In one hour, it may be, a little duct will be 
opened through which they pass into the deep and 
dark waters of the mighty stream. Why was life 
given to them so soon to pass away? That river fur- 
nishes to them the normal condition in which to de- 
velop and take on dimensions of utility. 



76 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD. 

r I "HIS is distinguished as an advance upon the an- 
-*- tediluvian period. The redemptive forces accu- 
mulate, and are made to converge. No special means 
are employed upon all. With the exception of a 
chosen family, the race are left much as they were be- 
fore the flood — to the light of nature — stronger, in- 
deed, now than then, as the knowledge of men had 
increased, and "the nature of things" was better un- 
derstood, and consequently more emphatic in its ethi- 
cal import. A knowledge of the flood, and the de- 
struction of all, to them known, of their race, was a 
fact full of significance. The following are the par- 
ticulars that give character to this period. 

1. Covenant security for the future. No mention is 
made of any such promised protection and care till 
the time of Noah, and then with reference to the post- 
diluvian period. In this way the future history of a 
man, or family, or race, as it would be through grace, 
was revealed to them. Their future was not condi- 
tioned on themselves, or the weakness of their own 
purposes. God pledged his aid for the verification of 
the prophecy of their future as good. " I will be with 
thee." The weakness of human nature, the frailty of 



THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD. 77 

human purposes, had been emphatically illustrated in 
the years before the flood. And as inheritors of this 
infirmity Noah and his descendants would say, " there 
is no hope." But under the conditions of the covenant, 
" ordered in all things and sure," solemn and deter- 
mined purposes and cheerful expectation give strength 
to man in the conflict of life. u I will never leave 
thee, nor forsake thee," is the anchor that entereth into 
that within the veil. The patriarchs seem to have 
relied on the covenant of God with childlike sim- 
plicity. 

2. A great and blessed future had much influence 
in sanctifying and ennobling the character. No man 
lives in the past or the present even, but always in the 
future. " Hope springs eternal in the human breast." 
An object to be gained is the moving power. This prin- 
ciple was brought into full play. Noah, just escaped 
from the ruin that had ingulfed his contemporaries, 
might have felt that the world was to him a blank, and 
furnished no object upon which his heart could fasten. 
But his heart w T as turned off from the " dreary pres- 
ent." The curtain was lifted, and the future, a bright 
future, absorbed his heart. God shall enlarge Ja- 
pheth, shall give him a numerous posterity, and a wide 
extent of territory. But the future of Shem could be 
indicated only by a doxology. Language could not ade- 
quately express or describe it, but God, as the Author 
of all good, could be praised : " Blessed be the Lord 
God of Shem." God would dwell in the tents of 
Shem. He would be worshipped in their families, and 
his special dwelling-place would be with them — the 
tabernacle, the temple. Here, then, was something 



78 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

definite — a glorious future, dependent not upon the 
uncertainties of human conduct, but upon the power 
and faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God. 

In a still greater degree, because more specific, was 
the power of a blessed future employed upon Abraham. 
Having lived more than half a century contemporary 
with Noah, and having learned from him the character 
of the old world and their doom, also the promises 
and encouragements given to him as the progenitor 
of the new world, and with the example of Noah's 
reliance on the promises that related to his posterity, 
and especially to Shem, his own ancestor, Abraham 
must have been prepared to understand and welcome 
the call by which he was to be separated from his kin- 
dred to fulfil a mission in God's behalf. How much 
must it have meant, when " the Lord had said unto 
Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
kindred, and from thy father s house, unto a land that 
I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great na- 
tion, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, 
and thou shalt be a blessing ; and I will bless them 
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee ; and in 
thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Ev- 
erything about it was practical and specific, — a great 
nation, and that nation a blessing to all other nations ; 
and himself to become such, and his reputation such, 
that he personally was to render an important service 
to the world. 

The promise became afterwards still more specific. 
Having for a time lived in the land of Canaan, he was 
told that that land should be the home of his posterity, 
and that there they would become a great nation. 



THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD. 79 

What an object ! What an inspiration from the assur- 
ance that this object should be attained ! 

The same principle goes through the entire patri- 
archal period. The love of that particular country grew 
stronger in each successive generation. They must 
all be buried in the land that their posterity should by 
and by possess. Jacob bound his son Joseph, by an 
oath, not to bury him in Egypt, but to carry his re- 
mains to the land of promise. Joseph himself, though 
his remains would have received the highest honors 
in Egypt, and his memory have been transmitted to 
the remotest future as a distinguished benefactor of the 
nation, yet " took an oath of the children of Israel, 
saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry 
up my bones from hence." It was " by faith" in God 
that these men " gave commandment concerning their 
bones." And their views were not confined to the local 
inheritance. The great promise to Abraham, that he 
and his seed should be a blessing to all nations, though 
to them somewhat vague and shadowy, was yet real. 
There was a charm in it. As it was to be God's gift, 
and in fulfilment of a sacred covenant made with 
Abraham and his posterity, it was ever associated in 
their minds with the idea of God, and of his faith- 
fulness to his promises. Distinguished temporal pros- 
perity, so far from diverting their thoughts and hearts 
from the unseen God, bound them the closer in loy- 
alty and love to him, as the God of their fathers, and 
the Author of the blessings that were to be theirs and 
their children's. The relations, in their case, to God and 
to their own hearts, and their own agency in connec- 
tion with the divine, were essentially the same as are 



80 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

now those of the objects of the Christian's hopes in 
the world to come. The object, in both cases, is 
veiled in the obscurities of the future and of a condi- 
tion unknown, and the hope and expectation of the 
fruition of it rests solely on the God of the promises. 
The philosophy cf religious culture was the same 
then as now. The sphere of the interests involved was 
adapted to the capacity of the human mind at that 
day, as is ours to our capacity. Life and immortality, 
and judgment beyond the grave, would have been too 
much for them ; not so with us. 

3. Special interpositions were among the methods 
employed. A series of miracles extended from Noah 
onward, and was especially prominent with Abraham 
and his immediate descendants. Whatever was im- 
portant for them to know w 7 as revealed. Whatever 
important to be done, but beyond their power, was ac- 
complished by the divine hand. The patriarchs were 
told where to go and what to do, and what, in addi- 
tion to the uniform processes of nature, would be done 
for them. God's care of them w 7 as eminently paren- 
tal. They went to God w r ith their wants, as the child 
goes to the parent. Hence they w r ere sure that no 
real good would be wanting to them. So they loved 
and trusted God, and God treated them as friends. 
The spirit of adoption cried Abba Father. 

4. Religious worship was inculcated and accepted. 
Wherever the patriarchs went, they reared an altar and 
offered sacrifices. These offerings were made as acts 
of religious worship. In them they devoted to God 
what was valuable to them, in token of their gratitude. 
Moreover, it was an external form in aid of the mind 



THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD. 8l 

in its worship. It was doing something for God, — 
the spontaneous prompting of love for its object. The 
altar would become a holy thing to their heart, and 
the thought that God, though unseen, was a witness to 
their service, would render more actual and influen- 
tial the thought of the divine presence at all times. 
" Thou God scest me." The philosophy of sacrifices 
was essentially the same as that of the Lord's Supper, 
or of efforts for the good of the world, and the salva- 
tion of man. We must act out our principles to give 
them vigor. Love to God must be acted out, and so 
Qf love to men. 

5. A church avowed and recognized was one of the 
means of grace employed. Abraham and his numer- 
ous family avowed themselves as the worshippers of 
Jehovah, and circumcision was employed as a badge 
of citizenship in a divine kingdom. They thus came 
out from the world and were separate. By this they 
were protected against entangling alliances. By it 
they exerted a greater influence upon the world, who 
took knowledge of them that they were the friends 
of God. 

6. The Theocratic civil element, or the employment 
of penalty for the enforcement of law. Penalty is no 
part of a purely moral administration. We find no 
trace of penalty, as a motive to obedience in others, till 
the present time. When circumcision was enjoined, 
he who should neglect the duty would be " cut off 
from his people." 

7. The moral law was but partially revealed. God 
had reasons for this. To have revealed more, while yet 
the moral forces in the direction of holiness were, of 

6 



82 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

necessity, comparatively weak, would, we can sup- 
pose, have discouraged and alienated those whor%God 
designed to win. The great principles of the divine 
government have been made known, with more and 
more distinctness and extent, as the human mind was 
able to receive them. God has a polity, and also a 
policy. It was in the wisdom of God, that the world 
by wisdom knew not God. The Savior told his disci- 
ples he had some things to say to them, but which 
they could not then bear. It is important to keep this 
idea in mind, if we would estimate correctly the char- 
acter of the patriarchs. 

Judged by our gospel standard, the best of them be- 
came, we had almost said, infamous. Abraham violated 
the plainest law of veracity in relation to . his wife. 
What I know a man understands me to say, and it is 
my intention he should so understand, that I do say. 
Jacob lied to his father, his mother an accomplice, to 
secure a blessing. And we see no evidence of com- 
punction. Nor are there any expressions of the divine 
displeasure. On the other hand, we find him favored 
with the richest visions, and most cheering promises, 
immediately afterwards. There seems to have been 
no law of marriage — save the law of nature, which 
would ordinarily unite the sexes in pairs. Whenever 
convenience, or love, or policy would prompt a differ- 
ent conduct, it was practised. Marriage w^as lost in 
Eden, and never restored till the Messiah came as the 
light of the world. The Patriarchs lived by the light 
they had, and a forgiving God accepted as " the right- 
eousness of faith" their proximate obedience. 

8. There is one other feature of the religious history 



THE PATRIARCHAL PERIOD. 83 

of this period deserving special notice, viz., its exist- 
ence out of the line of the covenant in Abraham. It is 
one of the facts of modern discovery, that the reli- 
gious character and opinions, especially with reference 
to God, deteriorated as the ages passed by. The far- 
ther we go back in the history of all the ancient peo- 
ples, the purer their conception of the character of the 
Deity. This is true of the China and the India of the 
present ; also of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. 
They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, 
and they have therefore lost the knowledge of him, 
and he has given them up, and they have thus ceased 
to be the subjects of his moral government. What 
profane history and the exhumed remains of ancient 
cities teach, we find to be taught on the page of inspi- 
ration. Melchizedek, king of Salem, was priest of 
the Most High God, and in the true spirit of a devout 
worshipper of Jehovah, he expresses his gratitude for 
the success of Abraham in his conflict with the hostile 
kings, in a doxology of praise : u Blessed be the Most 
High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into 
thy hand." Abraham recognized his priestly charac- 
ter, and u gave him tithes of all. " Abimelech, in his 
intercourse with both Abraham and Isaac, treats them 
with marked respect, as the friends and true worship- 
pers of Jehovah. He enters into a covenant with each 
of them, and calls them "blessed of Jehovah." When 
Joseph, while in Egypt, was prospered of God, Pha- 
raoh recognized the fact. " He saw that Jehovah was 
with him, and that Jehovah made all that he did 
to prosper ;" and to Joseph and to his venerable father 
Pharaoh paid marked respect, as the worshippers of 



84 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

Jehovah. Jethro is another remarkable instance in 
point. He was priest and prince of Midian, both offi- 
ces united in the same person. The record of him in 
Exodus, chapter xviii., shows him to be a real be- 
liever in Jehovah, and a devout worshipper, and in all 
things he shows himself one of Nature's noblemen, as 
well as the friend of God and his people. 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 85 



CHAPTER V. 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 



'THHE one characteristic feature of the Mosaic 
-*■ Period is the administration of a Theocratic 
civil government. The general features of the divine 
procedure are the same as during the Patriarchal 
Period. In the character of the seed of Abraham, for 
three generations, there is no impiovement. There 
are no evidences of any advance in intellectual or 
moral culture, or general civilization. Neither Isaac 
nor Jncob, nor the sons of Jacob, are superior in any 
element of character to the father of the faithful. Like 
his, their secular employments were nomadic, but 
their wealth not as great. They give no evidence of 
any higher conceptions of God, or of rendering any 
more spiritual worship, but the reverse. Their stan- 
dard of morality the same, their practice was at a far 
wider remove from their theory. This is especially 
true of the sons of Jacob. Indeed, their treatment of 
their younger brother indicates the savage, and that 
of the coarsest type. Deterioration rather than ad- 
vancement characterized the Patriarchal Period. 

The residence of the Israelites in Egypt only 
hastened the downward course. Though there was 
culture in the palaces and in the temples, there was 



86 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

none in Goshen. They seemed to have learned little 
else in their bondage except the practice of idolatry. 
Their nomadic habits were, to some extent, broken 
up, and they became accustomed to organized society. 
They had rulers of their own people in their various 
grades of office and responsibility. These were facts 
favorable to their organization under the conditions of 
the Theocracy. But their journey from Egypt to 
Horeb showed them to be but the merest children. 
In the midst of a series of glorious miracles for their 
deliverance from bondage, for the success of their 
journey, and for the supply of their wants, the slight- 
est inconvenience from hunger or thirst, or the absence 
of an instant supply for their needs, awakened their fear 
and their anger, and they were u ready to stone " their 
illustrious leader. Even after all the terrific, yet en- 
couraging facts of Sinai, the stories of Nadab and 
Abihu, of Korah and his company, of the rush, in the 
face of God's prohibitions, from Kadesh-Barnea up the 
steep ascent towards Hebron and the promised land, 
evince the fact that the generation whose characters 
had been formed in Egypt could not be intrusted with 
the responsibilities of their inceptive kingdom in the 
land of their hopes. They were but untutored un- 
reasoning wayward savages. 

But they were the seed of Abraham, and heirs of 
the promises, and must become a holy people. And 
this work of elevating and sanctifying men, of develop- 
ing in them a religious character, must then as now 
and ever be effected by the moral power of God's 
character, and government, and grace. God, then, 
must reveal himself to them, and press upon their 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 87 

cognizance their relation to Him of dependence and 
amenableness. This was the object of the divine spe- 
cial administration over them. God brought them 
out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with signs and 
wonders. He organized a national government, with 
its laws and penalties. Asa part of their government, 
was an extensive and minute religious ceremonial ; 
and such was the nature of the government, such its 
relations to the good and evil of this life, that their 
secular condition was a part of the divine miracu- 
lous administration. Were their harvests plenteous or 
scant, the approval or displeasure of God was indi- 
cated. In case of aggravated disobedience, the death 
penalty was inflicted by the hand of Jehovah. When 
human agency was employed, it was under the guid- 
ance of laws by himself enacted. During the first 
forty years of their national existence their daily bread 
was furnished them by a continuous series of miracles. 
It seemed then almost a necessity that God should be 
in all their thoughts. 

The character of God was made manifest in all this 
procedure. They had conscience, and had eaten of 
the " tree of moral distinctions," and knew good and 
evil ; and they could see distinctly that the divine ad- 
ministrations over them were to promote their good, 
and to repress the evil. They would also see in all 
the arrangements for an atonement, when he and 
they as parties had ceased to be one and harmonious, 
that he was forgiving, and of tender mercies. By 
and by, when they should be sufficiently developed in- 
tellectually to appreciate it, they would perceive in all 
their lot, as dependent upon God, a wise adaptation of 



88 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

means to the attainment of their highest welfare. 
They would see that the God, in whom they lived, and 
moved, and had their being, was benevolent, just, 
gracious. 

If we examine the Religious Ceremonial somewhat 
in detail, we shall see its adaptation to the men of that 
period for the development of religious character. 
We see it in the Tabernacle. God was the King of 
the nation. When an earthly monarch accompanied 
his armies, he had his Pavilion. From this his orders 
were issued. He was approached only by officers of 
the highest grades, and then with much ceremony. 
Everything was arranged to inspire the people with 
awe. So to the Israelites, the Pavilion of their King 
was in their midst, and in it and around it were mani- 
festations of miraculous power that could but elevate 
their conceptions infinitely above what could belong 
to earthly potentates. A pillar of cloud was over jt, 
which was a shade by day, but became luminous, and 
gave them light by night. If anything especially dis- 
pleasing to the King was done in the camp, the Taber- 
nacle was filled with a cloud, a token of a miraculous 
interposition for the punishment of offenders. When 
quietly settled in the land of promise, the King had his 
Palace — the Temple upon Mount Zion. At its dedi- 
cation to the service and abode of the Most High, the 
cloud of the divine presence filled the house. These 
places, made thus sacred, were ever associated in the 
mind with the thought of the presence of God. The 
w T icked would be restrained, while the good would be 
encouraged, and rest in the consciousness of safety 
from the immediate presence of an Almighty Pro- 
tector. 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 89 

The religious services at the Tabernacle and the 
Temple were impressively significant. They were 
full of the one great idea of the Bible, the love and for- 
giving mercy of God to the penitent and obedient ; in 
other words, of a Christ and Him crucified." This 
was especially true of the sacrifices upon the altar. 
The animal was the gift, often the expensive gift, of 
the worshipper, brought and presented to God. The 
blood was the symbol of life, — in it was the life of the 
animal, — and when applied to the worshipper, signi- 
fied that though a sinner, he should not die, but should 
live. The Hebrew word rendered " to make an atone- 
ment, " should have been rendered " to signify" that 
an atonement or reconciliation, or still more literally, 
a covering up of sin, had been made. The essence of 
the atonement, or rather the ground on which it rests, 
or the reason for it, was the penitence and loyalty of 
the offerer of the sacrifice. Here was taught the 
great truth that God was observant of, and displeased 
with sin, and that the sinner can live only as he is for- 
given, and thus reconciled to his Sovereign ; and at the 
same time that God is waiting to be gracious. 

If the sacrifice was a peace-offering, and to furnish 
occasion for festivity with family and friends, then it 
w T as to rejoice in presence- of God (Deut. xii. 7-12; 
xiv. 23-27). To aid in the conception of the divine 
presence, God was assumed to be a guest, and the 
choicest portion was assigned to Him to be laid on 
the altar, and consumed " as a sweet-smelling savor 
unto the Lord." The blood of the sacrifice was 
sprinkled, as a part of the service, and thus the happy, 
grateful man and his friends w r ent to the feast with the 



9° 



THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



symbol and seal of dirine forgiveness and purpose to 
bless. Thus the whole service was full of God, and 
fitted to the purposes of religious culture. 

Note. In discussing the general subject of atonement and 
reconciliation of the sinner with God, it should be kept in 
mind that the government of God, whose laws have been vio- 
lated, is moral only. So that the parties to be reconciled 
are in moral and social relations only. The same principles, 
and those only, are involved as between man and man, a father 
and son, for instance, or neighbor and neighbor. What, in 
such case, is forgiveness and reconciliation? It is the ap- 
proval by the forgiving of the disapproval and sorrow for his 
wrong of the forgiven, and the mutual sympathy of the par- 
ties in the matter. They place the same estimate upon the 
wrong, and have a common regret that it should have oc- 
curred. They each view it as they would if the offence were 
that of a third party. In that case there could be no occa- 
sion for alienation between the two. What is the difference? 
The estimates and the feelings of the parties are the same in 
both cases, except that the wrong-doer would feel a keener 
sorrow from the fact that the wrong was his own. In this 
way a personal reconciliation is effected. But are there not 
between God and man governmental relations to be taken 
into account? The government is moral, and the only ques- 
tion will be, if the offence is known to others, how to secure 
the strongest moral influence in favor of the right. The 
penitence should be known as far as the offence is known. 
And that which would satisfy the heart of God, would satisfy 
all good men. The penitence of the transgressor is the 
strongest dissuasive to others against transgression. And 
he can exhort others from his own experience of the evil of 
sin. Pain inflicted would add nothing to the moral power in 
the case. 

Illustrate by a case in human relations. A member of the 
church offends. Religion suffers; the -church suffers. His 
brethren are aggrieved. But the offender sees and feels the 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. <JI 

wrong he has done. He disapproves, and is grieved; his 
heart is broken. He comes before his brethren, and con- 
fesses his fault, and expresses with tears the depth of his sor- 
row. Do they forgive? He and they take the same view of 
the case, and they feel alike, save that he feels more deep- 
ly than they. They are all, including himself, of one heart. 
All mourn alike the sin and its consequences. Can there be 
a Christian heart in that church that does not forgive and 
bury the past sin? Does one of them ever wish to allude to 
it in the future? 

Now let it be supposed that this church — on the common 
theory of church functions — should inflict upon this penitent 
some great evil; — say, suspend him for six months from 
the fellowship of the church, and from its privileges. Here, 
then, is a penitent sinner driven from the table of the Lord. 
Or to save him from this infliction, let it be supposed that the 
pastor of the church should propose tu suffer in his stead, 
and as his office gave him an official importance above that 
of the brethren of the church, let him propose to be suspend- 
ed for half the period, i. e., three months. And the church 
accepts. The supposition is ludicrous. Yet this is "Ortho- 
doxy." 

The same subserviency to the great end is obvious 
in the various offices and their functions in the religious 
ceremonial, as in the sacrifices. The High Priest, 
for example, met a want of which we all, as sinners, 
are conscious. Guilty men, like Adam, shrink from 
going directly into the presence of the holy Lord God. 
They want help and a mediator. Such they have in 
the office of the High Priest. He was raised to the 
highest dignity by his office, and had been consecrated 
to its functions with the greatest solemnity, and in 
methods divinely appointed. This sacred officer was 
commissioned to bear the sins of others before God, 



92 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

and to signify for their perpetrators the fact of an 
atonement, and the sinners for whom a reconcilation 
was effected went out upon the future with the feel- 
ing that they were forgiven, and the burden was thus 
left behind. 

The Levites and their work were morally signifi- 
cant. Here w T as one entire tribe of the twelve set 
apart to the service of religion. This would make the 
impression that religion was no mei*e incident of tri- 
fling importance. And they must be supported. 
One entire tenth of every man's income was assessed 
for the support of the tribe of Levi, and this in addi- 
tion to another tenth for other public purposes. Their 
religion was thus very expensive, which too would 
make the impression of its great importance. It 
brought their material and spiritual interests into close 
connection, and spread the hallowed influence of the 
latter over the former. 

The effect of the three great Festivals must also have 
been to magnify their conceptions of the greatness and 
importance of religion. It would develop a large and 
generous social character, and also a religious pa- 
triotism. 

We might proceed to enumerate all the particulars 
embraced in the Theocratic administration, civil and 
religious. They were designed, and eminently adapt- 
ed, to make this favored people " a holy nation." The 
underlying principles were the same as those to be 
learned from the divine administration during the 
Antediluvian and Patriarchal Periods. The specific 
methods of their application were adapted to the 
changed condition of the subjects. The one great 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 93 

end in all, was to bring down from God out of heaven 
(uvwfre p, John iii. 3) a moral power, that shall renew 
the heart of man, bring him into fellowship with God, 
and restore him to his normal condition. 

The especial design of the civil administration of 
the Theocracy evidently was to make an impression 
of the justice of God. That of the religious ceremo- 
nial to present the forgiving mercy of God, — 
" Christ, and him crucified." 

The effect of such a system of influences must be 
great. Ail the lav/s of mental development forbid any 
other supposition. Yet the operation of these laws 
may be slow ; and so we find it. During the life of 
Moses, the force of his character, and of the miracu- 
lous interpositions by w T hich he was supported in the 
enforcement of his laws, held the wild elements in 
check, and had, perhaps, somewhat modified their 
character ; yet not greatly, till they were sentenced to 
die in the wilderness. That broke the spirit of their 
rebellious hearts. We infer this, how T ever, more from 
the character of their children than from a knowledge 
of their own personal conduct. 

Joshua succeeded Moses, with much of his power, 
and continued to guide the affairs of state efficiently. 
The constant wars connected with the possession of 
the country absorbed so much of the excitability of 
the people, that there was little left to break out in 
luxurious depravity. But with this counter-irritant no 
longer operative, and with Joshua removed by death, 
they act themselves. The history of Israel, as found 
in the book of Judges, is a melancholy record of the 
outbreaking of the worst passions of human nature. 



94 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

There are points of light, relieving elements of the 
picture. Othniel, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson 
— the last two presenting a melancholy mingling of 
light and shade in their strange conduct, and showing 
how very low was the standard of religious character 
at that day. The birth of Samuel was an auspicious 
event. His influence was great and good. He intro- 
duced the regal office, and anointed Saul to be king 
over Israel. The effect of this new office and its 
functions was, on the whole, good. There seemed to 
be connected with it a marked progress in civilization. 
This was apparent in the reigns of David and Solo- 
mon. During their administration, the kingdom at- 
tained its highest elevation. 

The strange tendency to idolatry everywhere mani- 
fested, furnishes a sad feature in the history of the 
children of the Promise. The religious elements in 
the constitution of man will have their play, and act- 
ing themselves out under the promptings and guidance 
of depravity, the result is idolatry. All the glorious 
manifestations of God, as the King of all the earth, all 
the fearful punishments for the violation of the second 
Commandment, proved ineffectual, and from genera- 
tion to generation they rushed headlong upon the 
perpetration of this Heaven-daring impiety, till the 
Captivity. " The carrying away into Babylon," illus- 
trated the efficacy of chastisement. " Blessings 
brighten as they take their flight." The sacred home 
of their fathers was appreciated in the land of their 
captivity. They hung their harps upon the wil- 
lows, or if they used them, it was in the plaintive 
minor key, that but evoked their tears. " How can 



tup: mosaic period. 95 

we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" 4i If I 
forget thee, O Jerusalem ! " After the Captivity we 
hear no more of their idolatry. 

During the Captivity they seem to have acquired 
some ideas of a future state that had influence upon 
them. It is a singular fact that in the literature of 
heathen nations there is so much said of a future 
state depending on the character of the present life, 
while in all the sacred writings of the Hebrews noth- 
ing is said of it — showing most conclusively that 
previous to the Messianic Administration the condi- 
tions of the divine government were not found in what 
is beyond the grave. Their opinions on the subject, 
however, seem to have had some influence upon motives 
and character during the later portion of the Mosaic 
economy. The mother and her seven sons (2 Mace, 
vii.), and also others who suffered martyrdom at the 
hand of Antiochus, are illustrations of this fact. But 
the future world was by no means the great fact that 
controlled the life and inspired the courage of these 
sufferers. It was their veneration and love for the 
" Laws given unto their fathers by Moses," — a love 
stronger than death, — which shows how mighty is 
the power of God's being, character, and government 
when applied to men directly, though for the present 
life, and with no reference to results of good or evil in 
a future world. It becomes a ruling passion. These 
martyrs died cheerfully for their religion and for their 
nation as holy. The same remark applies to David, 
with whom, so far as we know, there is no admixture 
of any theories about a future world. His love to 
God, his confidence in his government, were expressed 



96 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

in language whose appositeness and intensity cannot 
be exceeded by those who, with life and immortality 
brought to light, are loving and serving God. Never 
will the church outgrow the language of the Psalms, 
as the appropriate vehicle in which for their highest 
devotions to ascend to heaven. 

The growth of spirituality under the Theocracy is 
noticeable. There were doubtless some of those who 
went out of Egypt whose views were not confined to 
the ceremonies of their religion as merely external 
observances required by the laws of their King, and 
the neglect of which, as violations of civil law, would 
be followed by the civil penalties threatened. Yet 
we should infer from their history that most of them 
did not in this service really in their heart's experi- 
ence render an unseen worship to an unseen God. 
But with each generation, with a few exceptions after 
the death of Joshua, we notice an increase in the num- 
ber of those who worship God as a Spirit in spirit. 
A marked instance of this is furnished in Hannah, 
the agony of whose secret prayers prevailed. Her 
given and gifted son possessed the same character. 
David rises far above all that had preceded him. The 
later prophets, w r hose writings are a part of our sacred 
literature, rose, not only in their own personal experi- 
ence, but in the enforcement of duty upon others, far 
above the form of the Jewish ceremonial. " I am 
full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed 
beasts." " Bring no more vain oblations." Instead 
of this, "Wash you, and make you clean; cease to 
do evil, learn to do well." God requires a pure heart 
and a holy life. Near the close of the Mosaic econo- 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 97 

my we find instances of eminent spirituality, like 
Simeon and Anna, who worshipped God with fastings 
and prayers night and day. 

After the return from the Captivity there is noticea- 
ble an expansion of character, — like that imparted to 
a man of the present day who travels. Their views 
and their interests were less local. Many of them 
migrated. They were found in great numbers in 
Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and especially in Italy ; 
and were, then as now, successful in acquiring wealth. 
And they carried with them their religion. Not only 
so, they made proselytes. Wherever the Apostles 
went they found Jews in the practice of their religion. 
This higher type of character was evinced in efforts 
having direct reference to intellectual culture. They 
established schools, in which the young were in- 
structed, especially in religious truth. They also built 
synagogues for religious worship, — reading the Scrip- 
tures, prayers, songs of praise, and religious exhorta- 
tion. These synagogues were very numerous. It is 
said that in Jerusalem alone there were hundreds, 
while every village had its synagogue, — as the New 
England villages have each its church. All this was 
no part, but in advance of, the religious Ceremonial of 
the Mosaic Institute, both intellectually and religious!}'. 

This general improvement and elevation was in keep- 
ing with the state of the surrounding nations. It was 
during the centuries immediately preceding the com- 
ing of the Messiah that these nations were at the sum- 
mit of their culture. Greece and Rome then furnished 
their brightest luminaries. Alexandria was an intel- 
lectual Pharos to the world. The Jews, many of them 

7 



98 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

emigrants, " walked in this light," and were distin- 
guished for their learning. Of this number were the 
famous LXX. who translated the Hebrew Scriptures 
into Greek. All this was making ready eyes that 
could appreciate the light of the Sun of Righteousness. 

We have endeavored in the preceding chapters, by 
a brief statement of the facts in the history of the race 
that bear on the point, to show what are the funda- 
mental principles on which the government of God 
over man has been administered ; and that they are 
one and the same through all the changes and specific 
modifications of society, and of individual characters, 
from the creation of Adam to the Messiah. At all 
times God is love, and his government proceeds on 
the principle of requiring perfect holiness in the sub- 
ject, and at the same time forgiving the penitent 
transgressor. At the first interview after the fall, 
Adam was taught that he was dead to the conditions 
of life on the principle of perfect obedience to a per- 
fect law, and that he was to be transferred to a plat- 
form of reclaiming influences and forgiving mercy ; 
and in the case of the first recognized penitents, Eve 
and her son Abel, we see God, not distant and for- 
bidding, but condescending and friendly. 

We have seen God and the principles of his gov- 
ernment more and more distinctly revealed in succes- 
sive periods of the race, and the type of religious 
character correspondingly elevated. With this in- 
crease of moral power " from above," there was a 
corresponding elevation of the standard of morality. 
Neither Simeon nor Anna would have done what 



THE MOSAIC PERIOD. 99 

Abraham did — and without compunction. This 
appreciation in successive generations had prepared 
the way for yet greater light, and greater obligation, 
and higher aspirations. 

The Apostle tell us that the design of the Mosaic 
Institute was to prepare the way for, and lead men to 
(efg) Christ. A religious service and phraseology, 
and a character in the people formed by such means, 
were the indispensable conditions precedent to the 
work of the Messiah. These conditions we find as 
the effect of the religious culture of the Ante-Messianic 
period. When Christ came there was the worship of 
the God of heaven in the Temple, and, as we have 
said, less formally in the synagogues. There were 
many, we may believe, who, in the unobtrusive meth- 
ods of humble and confiding love, worshipped the 
God of Abraham in spirit and in truth. There was 
pervading the entire nation a full and undoubting 
belief in the one living and true God. His character, 
as holy, just, and good, none doubted. Here then 
was a foundation on which for the Messiah to stand 
and rear the structure of the New Dispensation. 



IOO THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE MESSIAH. 



BY the advent of the Messiah was introduced a 
new and glorious era to the human race — the 
living and the dead. The " Kingdom of Heaven," a 
great Redemptive System for the men of all ages, past, 
present, and to come, had now its commencement. 

The Messiah appeared in the person of Jesus of 
Nazareth ; who, though " very man," was, as man, in 
some respects unique. His filial relations were to 
maternity alone, and though developing in body and 
mind like other children, he was without sin. What 
effect his miraculous conception had upon his consti- 
tution, or those elements of it more immediately con- 
cerned in giving shape to the moral character, we 
know not. That he had the same susceptibilities as our- 
selves, and could be, and " was in all points tempted 
like as we are," we know. But those higher laws 
which required that his life and work should be con- 
ditioned on such inception, are above the sphere of 
our philosophies. That there were reasons in " the 
nature of things," and that it occurred in accordance 
with " the laws of nature," in the largest sense of that 
term, we cannot doubt. It is enough for us to know 
that it did not touch the constituent elements of man- 



THE MESSTAH. IOI 

hood. Jesus was a man, in both body and mind. 
Jesus — the man — was first educated for the Messiah- 
ship, and having been thus made perfect (reletw&elg) 
in his qualifications for his work (Heb. ii. 10 ; v. 7-9), 
was then inducted into the office. It is not more cer- 
tain that, notwithstanding his miraculous conception, 
it required the usual period of gestation to prepare 
his young being for life in the outer w r orld, than that 
after birth it required the usual period for the develop- 
ment of the man in his maturity. " The child grew 
and waxed strong, filled with wisdom, and the grace 
of God was upon him." When a youth, it is said, 
u Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor 
with God and man." Language like this must be 
understood to imply a general development. In all 
the particulars that constitute a human being there 
was growth, — in bodily strength, in intellectual and 
voluntary vigor, and in the affectional, both social and 
religious, and thus in a capacity to receive and enter- 
tain in their place and relations truths of every kind, 
appreciate their importance, and be able to apply 
them to their uses. Of all truth, the religious and the 
spiritual, while to man as normal, natural and easy, 
is to man as fallen, the most difficult of attainment. In 
no department of mental history is a growing recep- 
tivity more noticeable in the good man. The aged 
Christian who, like Polycarp, has loved, and served, 
and studied his Savior for fourscore years, will attest 
a continuous progress in this respect till the end ; and 
that he had been especially in receipt, year by year, 
of more and more of God, — a larger perception, and 
richer appreciation, and more absorbing love of the 



I02 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

divine character. Albert Barnes, when an " old " 
man, tells us that in earlier life God was the sun in 
his heavens ; but that with years that sun drew nearer 
and nearer, and with a corresponding increase of its 
apparent magnitude, till at length it filled the whole 
heavens. This is substantially the history of many 
aged Christians, and especially in relation to the 
love of God. This becomes to them what the light 
of the sun is at noonday, pervading and embracing all 
things. " That I may know Him," was the continu- 
ous yearning of the Apostle. 

That the attainments of Jesus were conditioned on 
this principle — growth from culture — we cannot 
doubt. The fastings in the wilderness, the conflict 
with Satan, and the need of an angel to strengthen 
him, the strong crying and tears, and the being per- 
fected through suffering, all point to this method of 
developing and maturing religious character, and thus 
fitting the " man Christ Jesus " for his work. He is a 
merciful and faithful High Priest, and knoweth how 
to succor them that are tempted, having been in all 
things tempted like as we are (Heb. v. 7~9)* 

And it is of the utmost importance in our estimate of 
the character and work of the Messiah, that we keep 
separate the divine and the human. The man was, as 
such, perfect, and attained and retained that perfection, 
just as other men do. Else he cannot be our example. 
The indwelling Logos made the man Jesus the medium 
of the manifestation of the heart of God. But other 
than that, this indwelling Logos did not avail in the life 
of the man. The man was in all points tempted as we 
are. And it was the plan that he should be. He 



THE MESSIAH. IO3 

went out upon his mission of toil and suffering, in all 
the weakness of ordinary humanity. The power of 
the Logos to work miracles did not operate directly 
for his benefit. This was implied, as we have said 
elsewhere, in the allegory of his three temptations. 
He must not avail himself of civil or military power 
in his work, which was purely moral. If hungry, he 
must not work a miracle for his relief. He must not 
make any display of his miraculous power for his own 
personal commendation. Not for himself, but for the 
good of others and of his cause, he performed his 
wonderful works. And while he was made to know 
that which for his cause it was important to be 
taught, beyond that he was ignorant just as are other 
men. Of that hour knoweth no man, no not the 
angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 
Hence the mystery and consequent difficult duty of 
portions of his life. The agony of Gethsemane was 
not the clear-sighted encounter with difficult and 
painful duty with a distinct perception of its design 
and results. To say, as some do, that it was the suf- 
fering of the penalty of a violated law for the human 
race is absurd, since a human capacity could not do it ; 
and to make God suffer the penalty of man's sin is 
horrid. No, the prayer, " If it be possible, let this cup 
pass from me," was conditioned upon the same mys- 
tery as that upon the cross : " My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me? " He was suffering, as are his 
disciples so often, in the act of obeying God in the 
darkness of mystery. The man needed support. 
And in all this he is our example. And he knoweth 
how to succor those that are tried, when, for unex- 



104 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

plained reasons, they wade through suffering for 
Christ's sake. The u man Christ Jesus " was " per- 
fected," as are all other men. Hence he is our Ex- 
ample. All this proceeds on the hypothesis of a 
moral union only between the human and the divine. 

In this direction we suggest the following: There 
is within the soul of man a mysterious susceptibility 
capable of receiving impressions, not through the 
medium of the senses, or from the result of any logical 
process. It is sacred to God. Upon it, as upon the 
tables of old, the finger of God writes. This tablet 
is capable of improvement, so as to receive a more and 
more definite and extended inscription. This improve- 
ment we find, as a matter of fact, is the result of 
general, but especially religious culture, so that to him 
that hath, is given the means of greater attainments. 
It is the province of intuition to see and read this in- 
most consciousness. 

To come at the same conclusion by a process more 
philosophical. Man has within himself the correlate 
of all things in which he can have any interest, or that 
are possible to his knowledge ; and these correlates are 
the basis of his wants. For instance : Color is the 
offspring of light, and a susceptibility to impression 
from light ; and as belonging to the department of 
sight, beauty and deformity are such only as estima- 
ted by a correlative susceptibility. The things we 
call beautiful or repellent, are such only as estimated 
by this inner sense. The brutes see in these objects 
neither beauty nor its opposite. Thus the quality and 
the value of things depend upon what we ourselves 
are. As of sight, so of all the senses, e. g., of sound 



THE MESSIAH. IO5 

and of music. So of what addresses our hunger or 
thirst. Hence the relish or aversion of the palate ; 
hence our animal wants. We may carry this idea into 
all the relations and experiences of life. There is, for 
instance, truth in endless variety, and the mind has the 
power to acquire the knowledge of, and to enjoy it. 
There are labors to be performed, things to be done, 
and there is the executive faculty which can do and 
enjoy the work of life. There are social relations, and 
a lovely or repulsive character of the manner in which 
they are sustained. There is a right and a wrong in 
this character, and the decision of our own minds 
on this question is a necessity of our being. The 
precept of the Savior, " All things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them," compels a verdict as certain and as necessary 
as does the falling of light in different combinations 
upon the eye. We must see the red or the blue, as the 
case may be, and we must see such conduct to be 
right and good, and its opposite wrong. Hence we 
have our ideal of the good man, and of a community 
of such men as good. We do not go abroad for 
opinions, or a standard by which to estimate in the 
premises. It is in us, and our verdict is a necessity 
from the very constituents of cur being. The corre- 
late of what to us is good or evil is there, and change- 
less. That alone is good which it so pronounces, just 
as is true of the colors pronounced upon by the eye. 
There is a want within us met by society, and that 
want is fully met only by such society as it pronounces 
good. Then there are specific social relations that il- 
lustrate the principle we are trying to see with more 



Io6 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

distinctness. Between the sexes there is a wide dis- 
similarity, and each has within itself the standard of 
excellence in the other. Neither wants the other 
like itself. The woman wants, and loves, and pro- 
nounces good what she calls the masculine traits, and 
despises effeminacy in man. The man, on the other 
hand, loves the feminine in woman, and turns away in 
disgust from masculine character or conduct. The 
sexes are a want each to the other, and each pro- 
nounces its verdict of good or evil as it is such to its 
inner and correlative sense. The ideal in either sex 
of excellence in the other is from its own nature, and 
is the verdict of its own conscious wants. Each was 
made for the other, and such other as answers to 
the ideal. 

Now there is in the human soul a want all-compre- 
hensive and urgent, hegotten of a susceptibility whose 
correlate is a Deity. Man wants a God. It is not 
more certain that he is social and wants fellow-beings, 
than that he is religious and wants a God. It is a de- 
mand of his soul of infinite urgency. And this sus- 
ceptibility decides not only upon the fact, but upon 
the character of that Deity. It must not be a malig- 
nant Deity, delighting in the sufferings of others ; nor 
selfish, seeking its own good at the sacrifice of the 
welfare of others, nor indifferent, unconcerned for the 
good of others, nor ignorant, and liable to mistake, 
and especially unknowing of the future. Such deities 
the degraded among the heathen have. But they are 
u without God in the world." 

We want a Deity whom we can regard as our Crea- 
tor, and to whom be grateful for our being ; a Deity 



THE MESSIAH. 107 

benevolent, and giving himself to the highest good of 
his creatures, sympathizing with us in our love to 
others, and our self-denying labors in their behalf; that 
is ready to forgive the erring penitent, that is all-know- 
ing of the present and the future, and whose plans are 
wise and endless in their reach ; that we can conceive 
of as like ourselves, and sympathizing in all our moral 
experiences that are pure, and whom, therefore, we 
can love as a friend, and personal friend ; to whom, 
and to whose interests, as immeasurably vast, we 
can consecrate ourselves and our service, and, so far 
as we can entertain an idea of them, we can make our 
own ; in whose great plans and their glory we can 
rejoice because they are our Father's, yea, our own. 

Now we say there is a want of the human mind 
that is met only by the conception of such a God. 
That mind intuitively assumes the fact of such a Deity 
is its necessary correlate. 

It is a doctrine at once of revelation and of philoso- 
phy that God, as its Creator, has direct access to the 
human mind, and may reveal to it any and all truth 
for the reception of which it is capacitated. We have 
seen that the religious is the one supreme function of 
the mind, to which all others are subsidiary. So that 
the one great fact of importance to man is, that he 
should know God, even Jesus Christ whom he has 
sent, as the Logos or Revealer of what can be known 
of God by man. This receptivity is addressed directly 
by God as the Spirit. Thus does man learn what 
God is, God himself his Teacher. He learns His per- 
sonal character, — His love supreme and central, His 
wisdom and power subservient. He learns His plans 



Io8 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

in which these elements of His character are invested. 
Every element of the divine character, and every in- 
terest of the divine plans, finds its true correlate in a 
living, prompt susceptibility that is awakened by the 
appeal of its appropriate object. The elements of his 
being, else undeveloped, are brought into play by this 
revelation of God, and of " the things of God." He 
finds that he is made " in the image of God," and 
capable of an experience like that of God, and thus of 
sympathy with God, and, as a consequence, of u fellow- 
ship, " or joint interest (xon'coWw, i John i. 3) ; and, as 
an executive agent, of " working together" with God, 
and there is not any interest that, as he estimates it. is 
not subservient, and thus a part of the generic interest. 
All his loves and all his agencies are here. 

The heart of the man is thus entirely appropriated, 
and, to use a term employed in humbler relations, his 
enterprise is awakened and enlisted for the accom- 
plishment of the great plans of God ; and by thus 
acting out the spirit and principles of his soul, he is 
changed from glory to glory into the image of God. 

It is obvious at a glance that the legitimate effect 
upon man, as normal, of these facts, would be absorp- 
tion of the heart of the creature into the heart of the 
Creator. With the Creator thus the teacher, and with 
the soul of the creature thus intensety absorptive of 
the truth of God, who shall place any limit to the 
knowledge of God he shall acquire, or to the knowl- 
edge of the methods and conditions of the divine 
agency in higher spheres, so that he should avail him- 
self of that agency, as we do from our knowledge of 
what we call the Laws of Nature, or uniform methods 



THE MESSIAH. IO9 

of divine operation, in our sphere, and thus work what 
to us are miracles. And who can say that such a man, 
thus in sympathy with God, and witli God his teacher, 
would not act out perfectly the heart of God? — so that 
he might say, " He that hath seen me, hath seen the 
Father." 

We think the fact of growth in the religious charac- 
ter of Jesus is noticeable to the end. He would not 
else be perfectly our example. Every careful and 
experienced Christian will notice this as he reads the 
Gospels. Every element of Christian character of the 
" man Christ Jesus " becomes more and more intense. 
More of the infinite and eternal in God, and of the same 
in men — their future weal or woe — the men, to seek 
and to save whom he had come — were absorbed into 
the mind and heart of Jesus. At the wedding at Cana 
of Galilee we see him cheerful and happy, and ready 
to contribute to the joyousness of the occasion. In the 
Sermon on the Mount we see that clear perception of 
the spiritual import of the Law which none but a sin- 
less heart would have ; and so, as he went about the 
Sea of Galilee, and wrought miracles for the joy of 
the afflicted. The loveliness and benignity of a per- 
fect man appear in every act. In the teachings and 
the reproofs in the synagogue at Capernaum, there 
is the deep and solemn earnestness and faithfulness of 
his spirit in his work. But when, by and by, the pop- 
ularity which his beneficent miracles had gained with 
the multitude had ended with their erroneous hopes 
and ambitions, and friends had abandoned him, and 
not only so, but the jealous Pharisees had become bit- 
ter persecutors, and when, as a consequence, he had 



IIO THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

fallen back upon God alone for support in such a con- 
tingency, then we perceive a depth of religious char- 
acter not manifested before. At every subsequent step 
the burden is seen to accumulate. We see it in the — I 
had almost said awful tenderness of his farewell address 
to his disciples. We see it in the tears through which he 
looked upon the coming doom of the Jews. And a little 
farther on, as the crisis drew near, this intense expe- 
rience becomes agony, and his sweat, like clots of 
blood, falls to the ground. In this agony of intense 
conviction he prays the Father, and, lest the humanity 
of the Savior should be crushed, an angel appears to 
strengthen him. 

How unlike these closing scenes and those of his 
earlier official life ! What a pattern to the martyrs ! 
Our Savior were not "perfect" but for the facts of his 
history of which we now speak. Every Christian 
should have a similar experience. 

We are not to judge of Jesus by ourselves. Man is 
fallen. Deranged functions are with him at the first, 
and attend him all the way. His wants are the crav- 
ings of a depraved appetite. " They do not like to 
retain God in their knowledge." The religious im- 
pulses depraved, men construct a God to their own 
tastes, " altogether such a one as themselves." Even 
in good men we find evidence of these abnormal intu- 
itions, as, for instance, in their monstrous metaphysi- 
cal theology, when they make "justice" the primal 
element in the divine moral character, and hence 
the sum total of that character terrific. But in the 
case of the man Jesus all was holy. From the 
first he was full of the Holy Ghost, and the devel- 



THE MESSIAH. Ill 

opment of the mind was in perfect symmetry. The 
relish of the soul was normal. He loved, without the 
slightest shading of disrelish, the truth of God. He lived 
upon it, and grew upon it with continuous symmetry. 
As a child and a man he was full of God, and ready 
to absorb into his inmost soul everything that related 
to God — his character, his government, his interests. 
He had no will of his own. " Lo, I come to do thy 
will." 

Can w T e place any limits to the assimilation of his 
character to the divine, or to the extent of his knowl- 
edge of the things of God? Would he not have such 
a range of knowledge, such a perfect surrender of his 
will to the divine, such a complete and spontaneous 
sympathy in the known, and to the human mind know- 
able, experiences of the heart of God, that, while 
sometimes distinctly conscious of himself as a man, 
he would speak of himself as such (Luke xxii. 42), 
yet at other times he would lose the consciousness of 
his distinct personality, and speak for and as God, and 
his life be the acting out of the heart of God through the 
consentaneous heart of the man. " He that hath seen 
me hath seen the Father." Sometimes the compound 
relations of the Logos and the man might seem as if so 
blended as to become identical ; e. g., in John xvii. 
Whose competency will justify him in denying the 
truth of this assumption? We think that he who has 
had the largest experience of what God u is able to do 
exceeding abundantly," will be the last to limit the 
moral power of God in elevating the human mind into 
such an experience of the divine. 

In the preceding we have assumed the normal state 



112 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

of the child and the man Christ Jesus constitutionally, 
and on the theory that his peculiar inception may have 
had, in a manner unknown to us, some connection 
with the fact. We are aware that the question may 
be asked, Would not the abnormal state (dfiagita) of 
the mother affect the idiosyncrasy of the child, and 
thus modify those experiences of the child that are in 
closest connection with the voluntary? It may be so. 
That the surroundings of the child after birth, that 
ordinarily give shape to the character from their " un- 
conscious influence, " were those of a fallen world, is 
certainly true. 

But while under one aspect this claim might seem 
to interfere with the fullest development of holy char- 
acter, under another aspect the conclusion would be 
the opposite. As we have said, Jesus from the first 
was full of the Holy Ghost, and all his moral history 
was pure. Given the voluntary right, and then the 
untow T ard influences to be encountered only give oc- 
casion, by the greater severity of the discipline, for 
the development of greater vigor and maturity of holy 
character. There was a propriety (enQene) in making 
the Captain of our Salvation perfect through suffering. 
He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. 
He was prepared, i. e., capacitated by his contact 
with depravity and sin, to sympathize with God in 
his administrations over the fallen race. And he thus 
could be an example to us, and in sympathy with us. 
We will rejoice that to those who wait for him, his 
second manifestation w r ill be in the heavenly world, 
and at the widest remove from any conflict or connec- 
tion with depravity. (uuuQTia, Heb. ix. 28.) 



THE MESSIAH. 113 

We arc now brought to the idea of the Logos — God 
AS revealable. There are depths of the Infinite Being 
which man cannot fathom. A part of God (to yroxnbv 
tov Orov) can be known by the human mind. It must 
be known as the power by which the character in man 
for which he was made constitutionally, shall be de- 
veloped. God lias been from the first, and is, reveal- 
ing " his eternal power and Godhead" by the things 
which he has made. Hence the Logos, or the reveal- 
able of the divine character was " in the beginning with 
God," and has been in a process of communication 
from the foundation of the world. But the Kingdom 
of Heaven, a system of redemption for the race, was 
conditioned on a fuller manifestation of God. This 
was made through Jesus. In the method expressed 
above, the Logos took such possession of the mind of 
the " man Christ Jesus," and came into such complete 
union with it, that its entire activities should be but 
the actings out of the mind and heart of God. And, 
as we have said, so great at times was the exaltation 
and the absorption of the human into the divine, that 
Jesus spake of himself as the Logos. At other times 
the human element is more prominent. He prays the 
Father. He exclaims, " Why hast thou forsaken me ? " 

The kind of manifestation of God in the Messiah 
was peculiar. At the burning bush and at Sinai there 
was an exhibition of physical omnipotence. The 
great manifestation through Jesus was of the moral in 
God, with its moral power upon man. First, the 
power was exerted upon Jesus himself. God did not 
use the man Jesus as a thing; he won his heart by a 
8 



114 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

moral power, and he then became a co-worker with 
God. 

The nature of the union of the divine and the hu- 
man in Christ has been the theme of endless discussion 
in the Church in all ages. The early fathers entered 
into it with great earnestness. All possible theories, 
save the true one, were propounded. The theory 
that Christ had no human soul, but a human body 
merely, with the Logos as the spiritual element of the 
being, was adopted by Apollinarus, who had many 
disciples, and, unless we adopt the theory of a moral 
union, his hypothesis, objectionable as it is, involved 
fewer absurdities than any other. The union must be 
either moral or physical. If physical, it must imply 
either the doctrine of Apollinarus, which annihilated 
the " man," and presents us God using a mere things 
as he uses any and all the forms of matter, or else a 
constitutional union — the union of the human soul of 
Jesus and the Logos. In such case Jesus is not a man, 
nor is the Logos God. To my own mind the supposi- 
tion seems almost blasphemous. In the language of 
physiology, what else is this one personal being but a 
" cross " between God and man. Refine the phrase- 
ology as you may, it amounts to this. It is an amal- 
gamation between the infinite Creator and the creature 
of his power. We will not stop to name other amdng 
the monstrous implications. 

The moral union we advocate makes easy disposi- 
tion of all the difficulties that embarrass the early 
fathers, and, we may add, which are driving some 
modern divines into Apollinarianism, and compelling 
them to accept a heartless and unsympathizing thing 



THE MESSIAH. Il5 

as the Christ. Now, instead of these difficulties, the 
view we take makes — so it seems to us — all harmo- 
nious. It preserves and brings out in easy distinct- 
ness the idea of the divine Unity. The Logos is the 
One God, revealing himself. There are no " persons " 
in the Godhead. 

We have in Jesus that which is the one and only 
object of our supreme homage. All that we know 
or that is knowable (to ypcoo-Tuv} of God is in Christ. 
An infinite abstraction — for such must be the unre- 
vealable of God to us — has little moral power over 
the human mind. It is scarcely an object of possible 
practical interest. The God that we know, and that is 
in practical relations to us, is " God in Christ." Here 
is our supreme God, to whom we should give our 
highest and undivided adoration and worship. " My 
Lord and my God." 

We have in Jesus a great Example. He exemplifies 
the legitimate effect of the moral power of God in its 
application to the human mind, and then himself thus 
actuated furnishes the perfect model. We should rely 
on the same divine power that he trusted, and under 
its influence act as he acted. "I in them, and thou in 
me, that they may be made perfect in one." Thus shall 
we " put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Origen teaches 
that the union of the divine and the human in Christ 
is the beginning of a similar union of the divine and the 
human in the disciples of Christ in all time.* And 

* This language is worthy of special attention: a 0n urc' 
ixelpov rig^uxo &eIu xal tivfroomlvr] avpvcpulpea&ui qpuaig ' 2v* 
Yi o\i dgtonti'T] Tij ngbg xreioisoop xoivuplq yivqiui &el<x oi$x kv 



Il6 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

certainly this view of the divinity of Christ has a 
mighty power and an encouragement in the direction 
of a change from glory to glory. Not only does it 
encourage our hope of an exalted Christian life in 
this world, and show us the method of its attainment, 
it lifts the curtain and shows to us a glory beyond, and 
gives us a more definite conception of what it is. 
Christ within us here, the hope of glory, and Christ 
within us in higher degree, the realization of that hope 
in heaven. Paul in this life said, " I live, no longer 
I, but Christ lives in me." To what greater extent 
shall this be true in the world to come, and what end- 
less approaches to the oneness for which the Savior 
prayed ! 

The moral union of God and Christ can be perpet- 
uated in heaven forever ; and for the same reason 
that we need such a Savior on earth we shall need 
him in heaven. We need not the Logos as sinners 
merely, but also as men. The Logos was with Adam 
in Paradise before he fell, and we as creatures shall 
need the same forever. The Infinite and the Absolute 
will be as truly above our reach millions of ages hence 
as now, and we shall then as now need a Mediator 
between God and ourselves — some condescending 
methods of manifestation. 

We hardly know who suffer the greater loss, they 
that reject the Divinity of our Savior, or they who 
reject his Humanity. The former, more than they are 

/udvcp to) 'Itjoov, dlldc xai naai jolg /uei& tov tuqteveiv 
&i>ala(ifi(xvovcn, @Iop, 6v ' Irjaovg edlda^ev. Quoted by Hagen- 
bach, i. p. 181. 



THE MESSIAH. ll*J 

aware, have learned God in Christ, and God to them 
is what God in Christ is to those who regard Christ as 
divine. Mary Ware had a divine Redeemer. The 
One God whom she addressed as a Heavenly Father, 
had all the attributes of the Trinitarian's Savior, ex- 
cept that now relinquished by modern Apollinarians. 
Can they who deny the humanity of Christ make as 
effective amends to their bereaved hearts? If so, it 
must be by falling back upon the same essential plat- 
form with the spiritual Unitarian. They have indeed 
God, and the historic material organism of a man. 
But what avails such an amount of "flesh and bones" 
that once was, but which dropped into the grave at 
death, to remain there forever? In our conception of 
the Savior, the physical form of a man is of no effi- 
cacy. It is the human soul as the medium of divine 
manifestation and communication. 

The Apollinarian theory of the God-man contra- 
dicts the express language of the inspired writers. Paul 
tells us that the reason why Christ died and lived was, 
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 
That is, he lived in the flesh, to fit him to become the 
administrator of the gracious government of God over 
men in the flesh, and afterwards died or became, as to 
the mode of his existence, what dead men are, that he 
might be, on the same principle, adapted to the dead, 
and of possible recognition as a sympathizing Savior 
(Rom. xiv. 9). Peter tells us that Christ, by being put 
to death as a man in the flesh, was made alive as a 
man after death, and went, as such (jivbvuuti), and 
preached to the spirits in detention in the other world. 
The "judgment" referred to in John v. 27 is that of 



Il8 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

both worlds, and the Messiah was fitted for that work, 
" because he is a man" 

Dr. Hovey, in his attempt to prove that " in Christ, 
Deity acting as such, and Humanity acting as such, 
were made one person," * — an essential absurdity, — 
does at every step really assume the very distinction 
and separate personality which I claim. Every illus- 
tration he uses is directly to the point of, not a con- 
stitutional, but a moral, union. Dr. Hovey's bi-personal 
Messiah is much like Dr. McCosh's bi-personal hu- 
manity, consisting of Man and Conscience, each with 
a distinct consciousness and separate functions in sev- 
eral particulars. f On Dr. H.'s theory, the u Man Christ 
Jesus" can be in no sort an example for our imitation. 
As we said above, he is not a man constitutionally, 
and therefore a man cannot imitate him. And what 
means the prayer "As (*a#(bc) thou, Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us " ? 
Not a union of essence, but a moral union. And we 
think that what is needed as a condition precedent to 
the belief of the moral union we advocate, is an ex- 
perimental knowledge of what is the import of this 
prayer of the Savior. With a better acquaintance 
with the nature and possible extent of a moral union 
with God, it will be more easily believed that such 
union is sufficient to answer all the conditions of the 
life and functions of the Messiah, and especially that 
it will have a moral power to bring us into a " fellow- 
ship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 
A richer Christian experience and a fuller development 

* God With Us, p. 88. t E>iv. Gov., p. 296. 



THE MESSIAH. I 19 

of a sanctified character will, we think, prepare its 
possessor, when theorizing in the light of the intellec- 
tual and moral philosophy of the present day, to 
accept our theory as not only plausible, but as the 
only possible theory that can meet the wants of the 
human mind, and accomplish upon it all that Redemp- 
tion contemplates. 

If it be objected that this view does not sufficiently 
exalt the " man " to entitle him to our adoration, it 
should be said that when we worship the Lord Jesus, 
we do not worship the man, but the divinity revealed 
through him. The experience of every Christian will 
make this plain. When devout Israelites bowed in 
worship before the awe-inspiring Jehcvah, as manifest 
from Mount Sinai, they did not worship the thick 
cloud and the thunders and lightnings, but the holy 
Lord God, whose presence they so easily recognized 
as there. One great object in the work of Christ was 
to reveal and give to man a proximately just and prac- 
tical conception of the heart of God. That concep- 
tion obtained, we worship God as a Spirit in spirit and 
in truth. 

With such a Messiah, the human and the divine 
thus united, commences the administration of a Re- 
demptive System for the human race ; those of every 
age, past, present, and to come ; in a word, " The 
Kingdom of Heaven." 



120 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN WHAT IT PRESUPPOSES. 

WE now pass to the consideration of the Kingdom 
of Heaven — What it presupposes, and what it 
implies. And first, What it presupposes. 

I. Up to this time the human race had, with few 
exceptions, been " without God in the world " (a&eoi). 
Consequently they were not under the divine moral 
government. 

They had no knowledge of the true God, and were 
under no moral responsibility to him as such. They 
had a u conscience towards men," and thus a moral 
character. They were sinners (d/Ltugjutlol^ but not 
against God. A few, by special personal and pal- 
pable divine interposition, had learned so much of God 
as to love and trust him as a personal* friend. At a 
later period a small, and relatively insignificant nation, 
had been the subject of a peculiar and miraculous 
culture, and the knowledge of God in progressive 
degrees was acquired and a religious service estab- 
lished, and by the aid of a theocratic civil administra- 
tion (Gal. iii. 19) perpetuated. The idea of religion 
and of piety was thus in the world. This seemed a 
condition precedent to the Kingdom of Heaven, and 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 121 

around it as a nucleus were grouped the great facts 
of the Christian Scheme. 

That before the coming of Christ there was, for most 
of our race, no governmental amenableness to God, 
the Apostle teaches, in his Epistle to the Romans. 
His argument proceeds on this hypothesis. He states 
that the one platform on which God, and man as lost, 
can meet, is that of faith in Christ as the Savior of 
u that which was lost." This is the righteousness 
which God will accept. He who is just from the 
righteousness of faith, shall live (Rom. i. 17). 

His facts in support of this position are the follow- 
ing : The race is fallen as the descendants of fallen 
Adam (v. 12). From Adam to Moses there was no 
formal administration of the divine government over 
men, u there being no law " (v. 13, 14). They had, 
indeed, the light of nature, and at first knew the true 
God (i. 19). But with their depraved propensities, 
they found the knowledge of God and of his will un- 
pleasant, as imposing restraints (i. 21). Their incli- 
nations influenced their intellectual convictions, and 
they did not " retain God in their knowledge." Hav- 
ing lost, during successive generations of deterioration, 
the knowledge of God, and thus of law T as his, God 
gave them up to their depraved propensities (i. 24, 28). 
God's wrath had been revealed against all impiety and 
wrong in those who had a knowledge of religious 
truth, but lived in impiety and unrighteousness. But 
when they had lost that truth, and were without law, 
God did not impute their abnormal and depraved con- 
duct and condition to them as sin or moral wrong, 
with its attendant guilt. In other words, he ceased to 



122 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

administer a ?noral government over them. De- 
pravity (rxuuQTia) is not imputed as sin where there 
is no law (iv. 15). It is simply an abnormal act and 
state, — disease of both body and mind, in which they 
perish (&v6[ung bnolovvTai), but without guilt, for which 
they are condemned (<^& vo/iov xqiOvfiovTai, Rom. ii. 
12). Paul said at Lystra, that God, " in times past, 
suffered all nations to walk in their own ways " (Acts 
xiv. 16) ; and at Athens, "the times of this ignorance 
God overlooked" (Acts xvii. 30). And to the Ro- 
mans (iii. 25), God has set forth Christ for the purpose 
of making known his principle of forgiving mercy, 
which had been hitherto but so imperfectly revealed, 
because he had not in the past imputed sin to men, 
but had passed over (ttuqsgiv) their sin, and had not 
called them to an account in their moral relations for 
the same. 

In keeping with these principles we find the history 
of the human race wherever a miraculous interposi- 
tion has not preserved them. In the third generation 
from Adam the recognition of God and his worship 
ceased, and they sunk so low in successive generations 
that they were hopeless of recovery, and were swept 
from the earth. Since the Flood the same process is 
distinctly noticeable, with only the same exception. 
Most heathen nations have deteriorated from genera- 
tion to generation. Especially is this true of their 
conceptions of a Deity. 

We repeat : when we say that men are not the sub- 
jects of the divine government, it does not follow that 
they are not sinners (d/ia^TOjAcU), but only that they do 
not sin against God. There is a " conscience towards 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 23 

men," and there are obligations of man to his fellows, 
the violation of which appeals to the same suscepti- 
bility as does sin against God.* 

II. Previous to the Messiah and the establishment 
of the Kingdom of Heaven, so far as a divine moral 
administration extended, all its motives of good and 
evil were derived from this world, and from God as 
related to us here. There was no revelation of a 
future state, and, of course, none of a tribunal to which 
men were amenable after death. 

The patriarchs and their successors had, like their 
fellow-men of every clime and condition, a belief in a 
future state of existence. But it was not a practical 
conviction. That world was seen ir no relations of 
importance to the present, or as to be affected by what 
was done here. And in the administrations of the dif- 
ferent forms of government over his people before the 
coming of the Messiah, God makes no reference to a 
future world, and rewards and punishments there. 
The good and the evil are of earth and time. 

During the latter period of the Theocracy there was 
more of a belief in a future state, and especially after 
the Captivity. But the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment make no reference to the subject. It was no 
part of God's design in the Old Testament to reveal 
a future state. 

There has been a strange propensity in theological 
writers to insist upon, and try to prove the fact, of a 
belief by Old Testament saints in a future state of 
rewards and punishments. Their theological system 

* See this discussed at length in Appendix A. 



124 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

required it, and their logic and exegesis were made to 
conform. Drs. Dexter and Bartlett, in the advocacy 
of the doctrine of eternal punishment, claim that they 
find it in the Old Testament. A few poetic expres- 
sions descriptive of a joyous expectation of the light 
of God's countenance, as given in the methods of the 
Theocracy, have been construed as implying the 
hope of heaven. And the prophetic symbols of Dan- 
iel xii. 2, 3 have been strangely perverted. And still 
more strangely Job xix. 25, 26. But the great ques- 
tion w T hich should be decisive on the point is, If the 
ancients believed in a future and eternal heaven and 
hell, why do they, as is claimed, merely allude to it 
in a few hyperbolic expressions of poetry? Why is it 
not the great fact of their heart and pen ? It was such 
to the New Testament writers. Why, in that sublime 
and tender farewell of Moses to the nation (Deut. 
xxviii., seq.), does he make no allusion to the great fact 
of a future and eternal state of reward or punishment, 
and especially when himself is called up to the mount 
to die. So of Jacob in his dying charge to his sons. 
And why are not the Psalms of David full of the great 
idea? There are frequent allusions to the future 
world in the Old Testament. Why no reference, 
direct or indirect, to that great, solemn, glorious belief 
of heaven and hell, if the writers had it? 

III. The dead, good and bad, passed at death to 
Hades, and were there together, much as are the good 
and the bad in this world (*), with civil ( 2 ), and ec- 
clesiastical organizations ( 3 ), with restraints and limi- 
tations, and under amenableness to a tribunal to be 
established by the Messiah ( 4 ). 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 25 

(*) Of the promiscuous character of the world of 
the dead before Christ, we may learn from allusions 
to that world in the Old Testament. Dead Samuel 
said to Saul, "To-morrow thou and thy sons will be 
with me (1 Sam. xxviii. 19; Isa. xiv. 9-17 ; xxxviii. 
18 ; Ps. vi. 5 ; xxx. 9 ; lxxxviii. 10-12 ; cxv. 17 ; cxliii. 
3 ; Job. iii. 13-15 ; x. 21,22). Nothing said of he'aven 
and hell and their several occupants. The rich man 
and Abraham were both in Hades. A great moral 
gulf was between them, yet they could converse to- 
gether. They belonged to different classes in the 
same place. 

In Job i. and ii., Satan and the sons of God are 
together before the Lord. If the scene here is not of 
earth and sense it bears on the point. Zechariah in 
vision saw Joshua standing before the angel of Jeho- 
vah, and Satan at his right hand (Zech. iii. 1, 2). 
The scene here, and we think also in the other case, 
was laid in the sphere of the Unseen. And the good 
and the bad are mingled promiscuously. 

When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, quoted the 
language of David, he said, that though in the first 
person, it could not refer to himself, and must refer to 
Christ, for he adds, " David has not ascended into 
heaven." He was in Hades, and in waiting for the 
consummation, — the time in which God would give 
rewards to his servants the prophets (Rev. xi. 18). 

Christ said to the penitent thief, " This day shalt 
thou be with me in Paradise " (Luke xxiii. 43). Yet 
some days after he said, " I have not yet ascended to 
my Father, but go to my brethren, and say to them, 
I am going to my Father and your Father, and to my 



126 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

God and your God " (John xx. 17 ; xvii. 11). Christ 
had been with the penitent thief in Hades, and to that 
part or state of it called Paradise, or Abraham's 
bosom ; * but he had not ascended to heaven, had not 
entered on his Messianic work in that world. 

( 2 ) That there were civil organizations by which 
the many were placed under leaders, we learn from 
texts like the following: Of the good, Eph. i. 21 ; 
Col. i. 16; ii. 10, — the evil, Eph. vi. 12; Rom. viii. 
38 ; Col. ii. 15 ; Rev. xii. 7. 

( 3 ) Ecclesiastical relations based on character are 
implied in the two kinds of organization referred to in 
number ( 2 ) above. The law of moral elective affinity 
would separate the classes, and the purpose to accom- 
plish ends by combined agency would compel, in 
each, organization and office. The rich man and 
Abraham (Luke xvi. 19-31) belonged to different 
classes in the same place, as of different character. 

The existence of classes and of ecclesiastical or- 
ganizations, with no other separation than such as is 
known in this world, is taught in Heb. xii. 22-24. 
The Apostle is contrasting the mild and hopeful cir- 
cumstances of the Christian dispensation with the 
terrors and the laws of Sinai. The former he calls 
Mount Sion (sunny mount), the heavenly Jerusalem ; 
and the scene embraces a countless multitude, viz. : 
first, the angels in general (jtavrjytigEi), and next, the 
good, who, there as here, are called the church 
(ixxlijatu, select). These are such as they were under 
the general government of God as "Judge of all." 

* Campbell's Dissertations, vol. i. p. 304. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 12"J 

As the Messiah had now entered upon the adminis- 
tration of the divine government, the scene was one of 
hope, rather than of terror, as at Sinai, where law and 
its penalties were pi oclaimed with terrific utterance. 
Why this hope for the world of the dead, and not 
merely to the church there, but to the multitude? 
Christ was to them " glad tidings of great joy." But 
next, the earthly scene. Here were the " spirits" of 
just men made perfect. They are called spirits, as offer- 
ing the spiritual worship of the Christian period, in 
distinction from the external ceremonial of the Jews 
(Jer. xxxi. 33 ; Heb. viii. 10). They are called "just " 
men, a term not applied to the saints in heaven, but to 
good men on earth. The perfection predicated (tetf- 
Xeuafiirmr) is that which refers to their condition as 
consummately favorable to religious culture. Such is 
the use of the word in this Epistle. There was then, 
among the dead, before Christ, a church, as distin- 
guished from the many, as is now the church in this 
world.* 

* We think Tiavriyvqei xul ixy.h^ata is in apposition to 
[ivouxaiv ayyelwv, and that ttoo)t6toxo)v is to be understood 
temporally, and that the reference is to the saints who were 
such previous to the Christian period. They were enrolled 
in heaven, as if their fraternal association had taken place 
there. Except the Jewish national organization, there 
had been in this world no organized church, whose names 
were enrolled. The position in the sentence of v.onr\ Ofcd 
ndcvTCov, points unmistakably to the fact that the reference 
above was to facts under the divine government previous to 
its administration by the Messiah. Equally certain is it that 
dixctlojv is not applied to saints in heaven (ayiolg) but to 
men in this world. And lereleioytivoiv, to such men in " the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." 



128 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

( 4 ) Peter speaks of dead men in detention (i Pet. 
iii. 19), and Jude (6) of angels, i. e., dead men, who 
had not retained their normal character and condition, 
or, as Peter says, ife had sinned," as kept in close con- 
finement, awaiting a decision of a great day, i. e., the 
test of Messianic administration ; and Peter (2 Pet. ii. 
4) represents them as confined in Hades, awaiting the 
same tribunal. It will be observed by the scholar that 
the verbs in the above texts are preterites, and refer to 
the ante-Messianic period. 

Matt. viii. 29. When the Savior, by his miraculous 
power, interfered with the malicious plans of the de- 
mons who had taken possession of the Gergesenes, 
they cried out, " What have we to do with thee, 
Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to 
torment us before the appointed time (xai.yog) ? " This 
implied that they knew that, at the introduction of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, they were to become amenable 
to the Messiah. 

That before Christ, the unseen world, like most of 
the present, was without governmental and judicial 
amenableness, is evident from such texts as the fol- 
lowing : Rev. xi. 15-19. After predicting the destruc- 
tion of the Jewish persecuting power, which involved 
the destruction of the nation, and the final termination 
of its religious ceremonial, and thus the complete in- 
troduction of the Messianic administration, the Apos- 
tle represents the heavenly hosts as saying, The king- 
doms of the world (xoa/uog), including the abodes 
of the living and the dead, are Christ's. They 
expand this thought into explanations. Thou hast 
taken to thee thy great power, and hast assumed 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 29 

4 

kingly functions. The nations have been angry, but 
the time of thy wrath has come, the time in which for 
the dead to be placed under a judicial administration, 
and for prophets and the good of every class to be re- 
warded, and for those who, from heaven, had waged 
war upon the inhabitants of earth (Job i. 6, 7 ; ii. 2) 
to be stripped of their power. This scene is laid in 
the spirit world, and relates to events in the world of 
the dead. The Seer adds, The temple of God in 
heaven, even the holy of holies, was opened, and the 
ark of the covenant of the Lord was seen — just as on 
earth, when Christ had said, wt It is finished," the veil 
of the temple was rent, and access to the holiest was 
open to all. Something analogous to this was true 
of the world of the dead. And it is added that there 
were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and 
great hail ; — implying great and evident changes in 
that world, as there were in this, — as was foretold by 
the prophets. " Yet once more I shake not the earth 
only, but also heaven." Changes there, as well as in 
this world, are to take place (Heb. xii. 26; Hag. ii. 
6, 21 ; Joelii. 28-32). In the following chapter (Rev. 
xii. 7-12) the prophet, when speaking of the effect of 
the coming of the Messiah, goes somewhat more into 
specifications. Hitherto Satan in the spiritual world 
had mingled at his option with the good, and with 
them had direct access to the presence of God (Job i. 
6, 7; Zech iii. 1, 2), and as a consequence had it in 
his power, by what he did in heaven and on earth, to 
inflict greater evils upon the world. But now there is 
w r ar in heaven, and Satan and his angels are cast out. 
Heaven rejoices, as now the kingdom of God, under 

9 



130 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

the administration of the Messiah, has come in its per- 
fection. Henceforth there is to be a heaven of perfect 
holiness, and accessible only to the good and the 
pure, — the Father's house with many mansions, 
promised by the Savior to his disciples, and which 
he went and prepared. 

Such was the history, and such the then present 
condition of the human race, the living and the dead, 
when the Messiah appeared and established the King- 
dom of Heaven. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 131 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN WHAT IT IMPLIES. 

MOST writers, if not all, have failed to notice the 
distinctive characteristics of the Kingdom of 
Heaven. They speak of it as equivalent to the gra- 
cious administrations of God over the world or any 
part of it, and which, of course, commenced as soon as 
there was sin and the need of grace. They have re- 
garded grace, not as an original and essential element 
in the divine government, but as superinduced upon 
that government in consequence of the interposition of 
Christ, — as if Christ was to arrange things other than 
as God made manifest. Their theories of penalty in a 
moral administration, and of some method of sustain- 
ing the government in its authoritative force when the 
penalty should be omitted to the penitent transgressor, 
led to the hypothesis of a quid-pro-quo atonement 
made by the sufferings of Christ, — displacing thus 
the precious glorious Bible doctrine of Atonement. 
No more disastrous error ever found its way into the 
system of religious truth. Laid at the foundation of 
that system, and regarded as a constitutional and all- 
important element in moral government, it has been a 
mighty power for perversion and distortion and repel- 
lency through biblical exegesis from beginning to end ; 



I32 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

and its effects have been equally disastrous upon the- 
ology, making that a wavy lens, seen through which 
the character, symmetrical, perfect, glorious, of the 
ever-blessed God, appears a deformity. 

The Kingdom of Heaven commences with the ad- 
ministration of the divine government by the Messiah. 
It embraces the following particulars : — 

I. The life of Christ as a man ( 1 ), and as such per- 
fect ( 2 ). 

( ! ) We have discussed this point on a preceding 
page, and shall resume it farther on. 

( 2 ) Vide above " Messiah." The perfection of a 
man consists in the perfect adaptation of every item 
of his history to the accomplishment of what, in the 
providence of God, is assigned to him as the object 
of life. 

The object of the man Jesus was to manifest God 
to the world — to lay open the heart of God to the 
sympathies of the hearts of men. First in this work was 
the entire consecration of himself to this object. This 
he did. He came not to do his own will, but the will 
of the Father that sent him. Even in childhood he 
was " about his Father's business." Next, his charac- 
ter must be formed and confirmed into adaptation to 
his work. His intellect must be expanded and invig- 
orated so as to enter into God's estimates and God's 
designs, and to make thus his interests perfectly 
identical with the interests of God in the premises. 
And the affectional must be so developed and disci- 
plined that his heart, in the intensity of its freedom, 
its affections, its sympathies, shall be absorbed into 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 133 

the heart of God, so that to see his heart shall be to 
see the heart of his Father. " God manifest in flesh." 
God could thus act himself out through the man 
— not in the use directly of the human organs, but in 
the use of the mind of the man — its entire and per- 
fectly disciplined spontaneity. The words and the 
deeds of Jesus Christ came from the heart of the man, 
or rather from the heart of God through, and implying 
the use of the heart of the man. In this educational 
and preparatory work about thirty years of the life of 
Christ were spent before entering upon his, work. 
Some portions of it were witness to great moral con- 
flicts and the severest struggles, and during his minis- 
try he was progressively made ready for the growing 
pressure and responsibility. 

Thus subjectively perfected, a perfect life would im- 
ply that he should do and enjoy and suffer just that 
which would most effectively accomplish his object. 
This also he did. His acts were right. He went 
about doing good. His fruitions were rich and per- 
fect. He rejoiced in spirit, and thanked God for the 
occasion of his joy. He suffered. He was grieved, 
angry, and wept in sympathy with human suffering. 
He submitted to abuse in its most aggravated forms, 
and at length he died. He was obedient unto death, 
the death of the cross. His whole life was full of 
kindness and forbearance and pity, and of a love that 
was infinitely ready to forgive, and be reconciled and 
bless and s ufter for the good of others. Every candid 
reader of the Gospels will say that nothing could be 
conceived more perfectly adapted to impress the heart 
of man and win its love. And coming, as these influ- 



[ 34 



THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



ences do, from a source in which is mysteriously com- 
bined the human and the divine, to be subdued by the 
love of Jesus was to be subdued by the love of God. 
The intellect cannot separate the two, much less the 
heart. We love and trust Jesus, and exclaim, " My 
Lord and my God." Thus are we " at peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

The life of Christ is cumulative in its moral elements. 
There is a power in the brief allusion to his childhood. 
It is very much greater in the history of his manhood 
and official life ; and it becomes greater and greater 
as we proceed from month to month in the story, till 
at length we come to the cross. Here is the consum- 
mation, the great crowning fact. When Christ said, 
" It is consummated, and bowed his head and gave up 
the ghost," nothing more could be done or conceived 
as possible. The work was perfected. This could 
not be said at any previous stage. Till now, Jesus 
had not in the highest degree magnified the law and 
made it honorable. Till now, the love of God had not 
made its intensest manifestation. Hence " The Cross " 
has been the talismanic word that, heard by the dead, 
they live, and live forever, and it will be such to the end. 

A philosophical explanation of the death of Christ 
was the great and difficult problem with the fathers, 
and it is equally so at the present day. At first, and 
for centuries, the sufferings of Christ for the salva- 
tion of men were supposed to have reference to the 
devil. He had taken them captive, and they were his 
of right (yus acquisituni). In delivering them from 
the devil, God, they said, would act honorably, and 
not take them by physical omnipotence. He sent 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 35 

Christ into the world to save the lost. But he con- 
cealed from the devil the fact of the indwelling divini- 
ty. The tempter, therefore, attempted to defeat the 
Savior in his errand, by effecting his fall, as he had 
done that of Adam. But he was not successful, and 
was himself thus defeated. Christ conquered the 
devil, and as he was the representative of the race, his 
victory was theirs. God was under no further obliga- 
tions to the devil to respect his claims. Some of the 
fathers refused to admit a designed deception on the 
part of God, and substituted the theory that for the 
privilege of inflicting such evil upon the Messiah the 
devil relinquished his claim. Something of this idea 
went down through the centuries, and to the time of 
Anselm. But at a much earlier period the idea that 
the devil was to be satisfied, and sinners were to be re- 
deemed from him, was by many abandoned. Sinners 
were to be redeemed, not from the devil, but from the 
wrath of God and his holy justice. God, and not the 
devil, was to be placated by the suffering of Christ. 

In this latter theory there were shades of difference 
in opinion in endless variety. The question was 
asked, Was God to be reconciled to man, or man 
to God? And that question has come down to the 
present day. Some held that the penalty must be 
literally inflicted, and if not upon the guilty, then upon 
a substitute. Christ was such substitute, and suffered 
the penalty of the violated law for each and every sin- 
ner, being infinite in his ability. One form of the doc- 
trine was, that God's holy indignation at sin was so 
intense, that he must, on his own account, act it out 
and obtain relief in that way. If not upon the sinner, 



I36 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

then it must have its play upon another, -and the ob- 
ject of that wrathful infliction was his own dearly be- 
loved Son. This view is distinctly presented in the 
confession of faith published with the royal sanction in 
the day of Edward VI., A. D. 1553 : " That by his most 
sure sacrifice he might pacify his Father's wrath 
against mankind." Professors Shedd and Hovey of 
the present day advocate this theory. 

The more modern theory, and now most prevalent, 
is, that the sufferings of Christ were a governmental 
measure, a substitute for penalty, and by which the 
law is sustained the same as by the infliction of the 
penalty upon the transgressor. This philosophical 
explanation of the function of the sufferings of the 
Messiah, it is claimed, is to be accepted and included 
in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The patriarchs, they 
say, must have had faith in an atoning Savior. Which 
of all these theories did they believe? 

O, Philosophy of the dark ages ! Give me the sim- 
ple Bible doctrine of Atonement. The Bible tells us 
that Christ died for us ; that he suffered, the just for the 
unjust, that he might bring us to God, not God to us, 
or remove any governmental difficulties in the way. 
" The Cross of Christ" comes in its appeals direct to 
my heart, and not through any theories of moral juris- 
prudence. I love Christ because he Jirst loved me, 
even while yet an enemy. All the silly theories of 
the atonement that have been honored by great names 
may go to the four winds. Let me have u Christ and 
him crucified," coming direct in its personal love to 
my heart, and let the motto of my salvation be, " The 
Cross of Christ." 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 137 

II. God in Christ. God was manifest in flesh. 
The Word became flesh. Christ claimed that he was 
God, and his inspired Apostles taught the same. 

Christ was God as revealable, in distinction from God 
as the infinite and the absolute, in the attempt to con- 
ceive of which the human mind is lost. We must 
have a personal God, and as such, invested with a 
moral character. We can sympathize with no other, 
and can therefore love and feel under obligations to no 
other. Nothing else can be to us a practical Deity. 
Christ came as the Logos or Word. A word is a 
declaration. Christ then, as God manifest in flesh, de- 
clared and thus made known to us God in the .moral 
elements of his character. 

See this subject discussed at length in Chapter V., 
" Messiah." 

III. The revelation of a future life in intimate rela- 
tions to this, indeed a part and continuation of it as 
one and the same. So that the change in passing 
from this life to that consists chiefly in the fact of a 
higher mode of constitutional living. The divine 
government will be the same, and administered gra- 
ciously there as here. 

As we have already said, the motives of the divine 
government, out of God himself, had been the good and 
the evil of time and earth. But the Messiah at once 
gave great prominence to the fact of a future world, 
and of its solemn relations. His Forerunner, when 
asked his opinion of the work of Jesus, declared that 
he was the Messiah, the Son of God, and added, "He 
that believeth on the Son hath evei'lasting life." 
Christ as he entered on his ministry, said to Nico- 



I38 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

demus, " God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlastiitg life." These decla- 
rations looked beyond the grave. This great doctrine 
was the burden of the Savior's teachings. So of his 
disciples. They went everywhere preaching Jesus 
and " the future life" (tLvbaxauio). Our world in 
which we live became a new world when its relations 
to an unseen world were made known, when life and 
immortality were brought to light by Jesus Christ. 
Men awoke to a consciousness of what was the digni- 
ty of their being, and what its amazing interests, and 
they sought for glory, honor, immortality, and secured 
and entered consciously upon the fruition of eternal 
life. 

Note. — We are aware, as we have said elsewhere, of the 
prevalence of the belief in the rewards and punishments of a 
future state. But it was not taught in their Scriptures, and 
was merely a philosophical theory. The more learned and 
refined of the Jews, when the Messiah appeared, did not be- 
lieve even in a future state (Acts xxiii. 8). 

IV. The sole administration of the divine govern- 
ment over both worlds ( 1 ), the living ( 2 ) and the dead 
( 3 ), by the Messiah. 

( 2 ) When the Savior had finished his work in the 
flesh, and was about to give the Great Commission to 
his disciples and ascend to heaven, he prefaced that 
commission by saying, " All authority in heaven and 
upon earth is given to me" (Matt, xxviii. iS). He is 
appointed of God the judge of the living and the dead. 
In both worlds he judges between the sheep and the 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 39 

goats (Acts x. 42 ; 2 Tim. iv. 1). Thrones, domin- 
ions, principalities, powers, and authorities of every 
name in both worlds are subjected to him (Eph. i. 
20-22; Phil. ii. 9, 10; Rom. xiv. 9; John v. 22). 
Thus invested he stands the Savior of the race, and 
Head over all thing's to the church. 

( 2 ) The Messiah established a tribunal in this world 
for the living ; at which was to be decided the char- 
acter of men, with reference to membership in the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

Note, — It may be proper, in this connection, to remark 
that, with the exception, perhaps, of the Apocalypse, there 
is no portion of the Scriptures more frequently misinterpreted 
than the Gospels, the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
The persons addressed by the Savior, and the circumstances 
generally, are left out of account. It is assumed, because he 
has come to be a Savior of the world, that he is addressing 
the human family as if present, and his language applicable di- 
rectly to the men of every age and country. But the fact is, the 
Savior was a Jew, and spent his whole life under the Mosaic 
Institute, and met and discharged the duties implied in this re- 
lation. His addresses were to his countrymen in the same con- 
dition. They were of the seed of Abraham, and heirs of the 
promises. They had been, from the day of Abraham their fa- 
ther, the special care of God, and of a miraculous administra- 
tion. They were the Church of God, and in their hands were 
the Oracles of God. A moral importance attached to them, and 
to their history, as a nation, above that of any other nation. 
To them, as Jews, a great Messiah had been promised, whose 
influence, fir^t upon them, and then upon other and all na- 
tions, was the great fact in prophetic vision for the ages. 

That Messiah had come to them first. With them he spent 
his life, and upon them exclusively bestowed his labors. All 
his public addresses were to them as Jews. Upon them he 
wrought his miracles, with few exceptions. His life and 



I40 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

death, and the inceptive character of his work for the world's 
salvation, were to be what they as Jews should make them. 
Nothing could exceed the importance of their conduct in the 
circumstances. These men the Savior met face to face. 
Among them he went about doing good, and, while working 
miracles unnumbered for their relief and comfort, at the same 
time proclaimed the great fact that the Kingdom of Heaven 
was at hand. He told them he was their promised Messiah, 
as John the Baptist had forewarned them, and was himself 
to establish that kingdom. He stated to them the conditions 
of membership in the kingdom; and he warned them of what 
must be the fearful consequences of rejecting their Messiah. 
The kingdom would be taken from them, and given to another 
nation that would bring forth the fruits of loyalty and love. 
Their rejection and their crucifixion of their Messiah would 
be the sin of sins; and upon them would come all the right- 
eous blood shed upon the earth. They and their conduct in 
these circumstances were to the eye and the heart of the Savior 
a present reality. His soul was wrapped up in these great 
facts. Hence his tears. Hence his words of power. They 
were addressed to them as Jews. They, as suck, were the 
burden of his parables, the point of his terrible rebukes, the 
object of those utterances, without a parallel actual in the 
past or possible in the future, of scathing damnation, in 
chapters xxiii. and xxiv. of Matthew. 

All this was said by Jesus as a Jew, addressing Jews who 
were then living, and recognized themselves and him as being 
under the law of Moses. He went about the country and 
met the people, not only at their great feasts at Jerusalem, 
but in their synagogues, when he, as a Jew, read from the 
Law and the Prophets, and explained the same and enforced 
it upon them. The Sermon on the Mount is an illustration. 
He had not come, he said, to destroy the Law and the Proph- 
ets, but to fulfil, i. e., to fill them with their whole meaning, 
and enforce the same. And this principle goes through the 
entire Gospels when the address is to promiscuous assemblies. 
The things said in private to his disciples are of course not 
of this class. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 141 

Now the common hypothesis is, that by the end of the 
a i wv (dispensation) is meant the end of the world, and the 
" coming of the Son of Man " is the coming of the Lord to 
judgment at that time — about which the Bible tells us 
nothing. Hence all that the Savior says of the coming of 
the Messiah to establish his kingdom, and of the end of the 
Mosaic Institute, is interpreted to refer to the end of the 
world. Also those parables that were designed to fix their 
eye upon the great fact that was to occur during " that gen- 
eration," and that was for the Jews exclusively, is interpreted 
to teach all men of every nation and age to be prepared for 
the end of the world, which to them severally will be at 
death. 

All this is as preposterous as to attempt a similar applica- 
tion of the language of Moses to the uncivilized Israelites in 
the wilderness, or his farewell address to them on the plains 
of Moab to the men of all ages, and to make the language 
of Deut. xxviii., by some forced accommodation, to refer 
to the "end of the world," and a catastrophe of the planet. 
Yet further : This everlasting or perpetual destruction of 
the Jewish nation at the end of the dispensation, is made to 
teach the eternal punishment of the wicked as individuals, 
from and after the end of the world. No wonder the church 
is full of sects, when such principles of exegesis prevail. 
These remarks premised, I shall be better understood in the 
immediate sequel. 

The Messiah, as he entered upon his work, an- 
nounced the great fact that he had come to save our 
lost race, and also, as we have seen, the great fact of 
an unseen and an eternal world as intimately con- 
nected with this. So that his salvation would be an 
everlasting salvation. He would, as a means to this 
end, establish a kingdom, a spiritual — not palpable — 
organization, membership in which would be life eter- 
nal. With reference to this membership men would 



142 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

be judged. This judgment God had committed to 
him, as belonging solely to his kingdom. Not that 
the errand on which God had sent his Son into the 
world was to judge and condemn the world, but that 
the world through him might be saved. Yet, as an 
antecedent, estimates of character must be made, and 
his judgment would have exclusive reference to the 
question of membership in his kingdom. None could 
be admitted who did not practically accept him as the 
Savior of the world. He that believeth on him is not 
condemned, but admitted ; he that believeth not has 
already condemned himself (middle voice), because 
he has not believed. The admitted, with their new 
heart, were the Savior's care, and their new heart 
w r ould be a well of water springing up unto everlasting 
life. The rest were left as before, unsaved. 

On this point of membership in the Kingdom of 
Heaven, there were circumstances of temporal and 
national interest peculiar to the Jews. If they rejected 
their Messiah, the nation would be destroyed. Tem- 
poral judgments, of fearful and unparalleled severity, 
would come upon them. To this the Savior refers in 
several of his parables. Such are the parables of the 
vineyard, Matt. xxi. 33-44 ; of the marriage of the 
king's son, xxii. 1-13 ; of the ten virgins, and that of 
the talents, Matt. xxv. 1-30. Those not admitted to 
the kingdom were left to take the consequences. 
Those consequences to the Jews would be to them in 
part as such, and as subject to theocratic penalties. 
(Vide Deut. xxviii. ; Dan. xii. 1-3.) 

But, finally, the Savior states more formally the 
principles on which this Kingdom of Heaven will be 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 43 

administered (Matt. xxv. 31-46). When the Son 
of man shall have come (^#77, implying from the 
preceding context that it was just at hand) in his glory, 
and all the holy angels with him, in the language of 
the prophecy by Daniel of this great fact, he will sit as 
king, and before him all nations will be gathered as 
amenable. His work will be to separate the good 
from the bad. The standard of judgment will be 
practical love to him on the one hand, or neglect, non- 
doing on the other. The good he will incorporate 
into his kingdom to share in its glories. The bad will 
go away (noQsveu&e, indicative, not imperative, pres- 
ent), to experience the self-invoked evils for which 
the devil and his angels have prepared them — to ex- 
perience with them the natural effects to the human 
being of the abnormal play of its powers — the per- 
petual laceration, and wear and tear, and mangling, 
that must be the result in body and mind. 

Note. — The construction of v. 41 is peculiar, as y.arrjqn^iBVOL 
is in the middle voice, and tg> dtafiolcp and joXg ayyiloig, 
after perfect passives, are datives with the ablative significa- 
tion.* (Vide Matt. v. 21; Acts xx. 9; Rom. xi. 20; Eph. 
ii. 5; Rom. iii. 24; 2 Cor. i. 15.) Literally, "You go from 
me to suffer self-imprecated fire everlasting, made ready by 
the devil and his angels; "that is, to experience the evils 
which are the natural result of your character and condition, 
made what they are through diabolical agency. 

The view we take of Matt. xxv. 31, seq., is that of the early 
fathers, and especially of the import of Y.okaaiv (punishment), 

* Vide Crosby's Greek Grammar, § 417. Also Kuhner's 
Greek Grammar, § 2S5 ; Whitney's, § 606; Winer's Idioms, 
§ 21-24. 



144 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

v. 46. Irenseus says the evils that come upon the sinner are 
not positive inflictions by the hand of God. Separation from 
God is the death of the sinner (/oooio/udg derov \rsov xr&rarog). 
God does not punish in execution of a previous threat (ttqo- 
rjyrjTixwg) ; the evil is a natural consequence (enaxolovd-ov- 
o~r\g dS ixttvijg \rr\g tijuagr tag"] Tr\g xoldcreo)g). Notice xol&aewg 
as importing these natural consequences. Cle?ne?it of Alex- 
andria supposes this suffering {itohuaiv) to be educational or 
disciplinary. AI.V (hg ttqo; tov dtdaaxulov r^ tov rcaTobg ol 
naldsg, oviojg TjfieTg nqbg jr^g nqovoiag xolix'^oue&a, Qedg dh 
ov TifibtqeTTair sgti ydco fj Ti/uwola xaxov uvTanodocrig • xolu'Cec 
[xevTOv Tigbg to /Q^ai/uov xal xou>i\ xal idla Toig xola^oibtipoig. 
We are chastened as children by their teacher or parents. 
God does not avenge himself; revenge is but rendering evil 
for evil. He inflicts evil for the good, public and private, of 
those who suffer. Origen says God loves to do good (elg de 
to xol&oanovg d^lovg xol&oewg ^t/eAA^z-rjc), but to chasten those 
who need chastisement he is reluctant. * Notice the import 
of xolaaig and its corresponding verb in these extracts. It 
is not penalty, but chastisement, having reference to the 
good of the sufferer. In keeping with this is the original of 
what is rendered " Depart from me, ye cursed." Literally, 
"Ye go from me self-condemned" (aorist mid.), to the ex- 
perience of perpetual sufferings (v. 41).- So v. 46: "'And 
these will go away to suffer perpetual and fearful evils." We 
find here, not a threat, nor a command, but a tenderly ex- 
pressed statement of a fearful fact. Nothing in the text 
forbids the supposition ; rather the context seems to imply 
that these words were said by the Savior, and would be re- 
peated in the same spirit as when he wept over Jerusalem, 
and told of the fearful evils that were soon to come upon the 
Jews. 

Liddell and Scott define xolauig, a pruning dipdgwv; hence 
cJiecking, famishing, chastisement, correction, punish?nent. 

* Vide Hagenbach's Hist. Doctrines, i. p. 112. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. I45 

The connection, and the language itself, of Matt. xxv. 31- 
46, forbid the application of it to what is called -freoloyixoig, 
the " Day of Judgment," at the end of the world. Chapter 
xxiv. refers to the termination of the Jewish economy. The 
parables of the ten virgins and of the talents refer to the same. 
The language of v. 31, "When the Son of man has come 
(eld?]) in his glory," &c, points unmistakably to Dan. vii. 9- 
27, in which is foretold the establishment of the Kingdom of 
God. The Messiah was to be King, and his subjects were 
not to be confined to the Jews, but were to include the heathen 
(nx id-vrf), " all nations." Christ had just before said that the 
introduction of this kingdom would be in the then present 
generation (xxiv. 34). The design of this language is to 
teach the principle on which the kingdom would be adminis- 
tered. The good, or truly religious, were to be separated 
from the evil or irreligious, and constitute a church. The 
Church of Christ is the Kingdom of Heaven. Theologians 
have first invented " The Day of Judgment," and then have 
perverted this language into a reference to it. 

To this same category belongs that ever-perverted 
text (Matt. xii. 30-33), supposed to teach the doctrine 
of " the unpardonable sin," so called. Christ had 
healed by a word a man possessed of a devil, blind 
and dumb. The Pharisees attributed the miracle to 
diabolical agency. These Pharisees claimed to be 
good men, and to be waiting for the Kingdom of God. 
The Savior told them of their mistake. Good men at 
heart might indeed have their imperfections. These 
must be overlooked and covered by the mantle of 
charity. There were, however, sins of a different 
class, and that could not thus be covered. They were 
decisive of character as generically bad. A miracle 
had been wrought that unmistakably evinced the pres- 
ence and power of the unseen Spirit. To attribute it 
10 



146 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

to Beelzebub was to scandalize the holy Lord God. 
" Holy Spirit" is here used in the Old Testament 
sense, to imply the power that works miracles in him 
who possessed it. This sin was not to be -passed over. 
He who was guilty of it could not be received into the 
Kingdom of Heaven, but was unsaved and in a state of 
exposure or of liability (ei>o%6g) to perpetual sin (Mark 
iii. 29, uuhpiov &fioLQTi\(jiaTog) . This is the reading of the 
best manuscripts. To forgive is not the primary sig- 
nification of ucphiiii, but it is sometimes employed in that 
sense. To leave, let go, let aloite, suffer to be so, are 
translations of it in the English version. Indeed, to 
forgive sin is little else than to leave it. The Old 
Testament called it " to cover up," so as to put out of 
sight. The Savior adds that this was the criterion of 
the then present dispensation in this world, and would 
be so in that beyond the grave. In both the tree 
would be known by its fruit. Such fruit as this im- 
plied a bad tree. Here, then, the great question was 
as to character that qualified for membership in the 
Kingdom of God. 

The English reader is liable to be misled by the 
rendering of the original word to judge (xqivoj). It is 
sometimes, in our translation, rendered to condemn. 
That is not the import of the word, but might be tol- 
erated when the guilt of the person on trial was as- 
sumed. It means to estimate, to form an opinion on 
facts, to discriminate. This word (xglva)) is, with one 
exception, always used by the Savior, and of his acts 
in judging of men. He does not condemn. He judges 
of character, and selects the good and casts the bad 
away. In Mark xvi. 15, 16, the Savior says to his 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 47 

disciples, Preach the gospel to every creature. He 
that believeth and is baptized (cleansed, really con- 
verted), shall be saved. He that believeth not shall 
be condemned " (xuTaxgid-rjcjeTcu, to judge against). 
This word has the idea of a verdict against the person 
judged. If there is a penalty to the law violated, it is 
named as " condemned to death " (Matt. xx. 18 ; 
Markx. 33 ; xiv. 64). In Mark xvi. 16, there is no pen- 
alty. The Savior was teaching his disciples how to 
gather his church. They must accept all that believe 
and are cleansed, or genuine converts, but reject or 
pronounce a verdict against all others. 

The Savior then judges or estimates, and discrimi- 
nates between good and bad men, — the sheep and 
the goats. He condemns only to non-acceptance as 
his disciples. He threatens no penalty. To those 
who would enter his kingdom, who are not worthy, 
he says, " I know you not." " I never knew you." 
" Depart, or you do depart, from me." And they " go 
away," to meet the self-inflicted woes that attend upon 
an evil heart of unbelief. They are left out, " without 
Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, stran- 
gers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, 
and without God in the world ; " " wretched, and 
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." " Not 
saved." 

The Savior told his disciples that when he should 
enter upon his official work and take the throne of his 
glory, they also would sit upon twelve thrones, judging 
the twelve tribes of Israel. They, as inspired, would 
give to the church the principles by which to judge of 
the character of men. And just before he left his dis- 



148 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

ciples, he assured them the Holy Spirit would be 
given to the world, and would convince them of sin, 
and of righteousness, and of judgment, or discrimina- 
tion, and thus that discrimination would be made be- 
tween sin and righteousness. Christians, especially 
if full of the Spirit, would make the distinction. When 
Paul would dissuade Christians from going to law 
before civil magistrates, he says, u Know ye not that 
the saints judge the world, and if the world is judged 
by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matter? 
Know ye not that we judge angels?" 

In point is Rom. i. 18. The wrath of God is re- 
vealed from heaven upon all impiety and wrong of 
men holding the truth in unrighteousness. Christ has 
come, and God's law is known. To sin now is (ii. 
5) to treasure up wrath in (ev) a day of wrath, i. e., a 
day in which the will of God being known, to disobey 
is to incur his displeasure, as they would not in the 
day of their ignorance, when they were suffered to 
walk in their own w 7 ays (Acts xiv. 16 ; xvii. 30). The 
present is a day of revelation of God's w 7 ill and dis- 
pleasure at disobedience. So verses 12, 16 : As many 
as have sinned without law, will destroy themselves 
(middle voice) without law ; and as many as have 
sinned with a knowledge of law, will be judged with 
reference to law . . . in a day when God is judg- 
ing the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by 
Jesus Christ, i. e., now under the Christian dispensa- 
tion. " A judgment of a great day" (Jude 6), is 
that of the Messianic dispensation. " Now is a judg- 
ment of the world " (John xii. 31). 

As bearing indirectly on the point now under con- 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 149 

sideration, and withdrawing support from the theo- 
logical " Day of Judgment," it may be stated that in 
most cases where our translators render " the day of 
judgment," it is a day. " It shall be more tolerable 
for Sodom and Gomorrah in a day of judgment than 
for that city ; " i. e., in a day when God shall deal with 
Capernaum, the evil will be greater than that of 
Sodom (Matt. x. 15). Vide also Matt. xi. 24; 
Mark vi. n ; Matt. xi. 22; xii. 36; 2 Pet. ii. 9 ; iii. 
7. Also Rom. ii. 16 ; 2 Cor. vi. 2 ; Phil. ii. 16 ; Heb. 
viii. 9 ; 1 Pet. ii. 12. 

The reader will remember that we have attempted 
to prove that " penalty " is not an element in a moral 
government. It does not follow that fearful evils do 
not come in train of sin. I can conceive of no more 
terrible hell, than for selfish men to be given up and 
abandoned to the unrestrained operation of their own 
hearts' principles and spirit. We have hells on earth. 
How much more will there be hells in the future 
world, when the social and secular bonds of the pres- 
ent shall be no more. 

( 3 ) The Messiah at the same time established a tri- 
bunal in the spiritual world for the dead, and to decide 
the same question. As Messiah, all authority in 
heaven and upon earth was his (Matt, xxviii. 18). 
He was equally the judge of the qualifications of men 
for his kingdom in both worlds. And his judgment 
is the same (Luke xii. 8, 9). For this very reason 
Christ died and lived, that he might be Lord of both 
the dead and the living (Rom. xiv. 9) . " It is ap- 
pointed unto men once to die, but after this, judgment " 
(Heb. ix. 27). Judgment before and after death, one 



I50 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

and the same, in its nature and design. And there is 
a twofold implication in this text. First, men die, 
yet death does not affect their moral relations. They 
are still, as here, responsible and amenable to Christ. 
So of Christ, he has died once in the flesh, to bear 
away (uveveyxslv^ our sins, yet he will still go on in 
his work, and will appear a second time (John xiv. 
3), i. e., when we pass into the spirit world, to judge 
and approve. We are there to be judged (*£/ok), 
and by Jesus Christ, who will approve and save. " Who 
shall give account to him who is invested w T ith au- 
thority to judge the living and the dead." For the 
gospel was preached to the dead, that while they may 
have been judged living in the flesh (in this life), as 
we men judge them (and correctly), they may yet in 
their spiritual state (after death), with God become 
such, and so estimated that they shall live (1 Pet. iv. 
5, 6). From v. 4, we learn that their sin was that of 
ignorance. Christ is the divinely constituted Judge 
of the living and the dead (Acts x. 42). I " solemnly 
declare to you in the presence of God, and of Jesus 
Christ, who is authorized officially to judge (xgti>eu>^ 
the living and the dead, his appearing and his king- 
dom " (2 Tim. iv. 1). The good in the future world 
rejoice that the time has come in which discrimina- 
tion should be made among the dead, and the good be 
approved and blessed (Rev. xi. 17, 18). In Heb. vi. 
2, the work of judging is said to be perpetual, and to 
be one of the first principles taught young converts. 
Men, therefore, must be in a process of change and 
recovery. We understand xgtfia to import the act 
of judging. In Eph. ii. 7, dispensations are repre- 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 151 

sented as coming on in numbers indefinite. Eph. i. 
10, it is " fullness of dispensations," i. e. a great many, 
enough to secure the result named. 

That there is a tribunal in the future world where 
Christ will judge and decide upon the characters of 
men as entitled or not to membership in the Kingdom 
of Heaven, is admitted by all evangelical Christians. 

V. The government of the Messiah, as alike gra- 
cious and reformatory, in both worlds, the living and 
the dead. 

The writer is happy to know that in this opinion he 
stands with the great body of Christians from the 
first. The opposite doctrine, and which limits the 
reformatory- and redemptive work of Christ to the 
present life, is for the most part a modern and " new 
school " theory, and is a departure from " the faith 
once delivered to the saints." We belong to "the sac- 
ramental host," that has marched down through the 
ages, "The Cross of Christ " on its banner. We 
stand where stood the martyrs who believed in a 
" great salvation." 

Luther finding so many and monstrous errors con- 
nected with the doctrine of the Messiah's work in the 
future state, in the form of purgatory and masses for the 
dead, instead of correcting these errors, and retaining 
what was, and had been from the first, the doctrine of 
the Christian church, made no distinctions, and pendu- 
lum-like, swung into an extreme as wide as that of his 
antagonists. The idea of a reformatory work beyond 
the grave was rejected, and probation and repentance 
and forgiveness confined to this brief life, — under- 
standing what Christ said of the end of the Mosaic 



152 THE BIBLE REGAINED 

period (d<c5^), as of the end of the world. Of course 
many of the followers of the great Reformer accepted 
his opinions, which became thus a part of Protestantism. 
The Church of England was hardly Protestant, as the 
substitution of Henry VIII. in place of the Pope was 
not a secession from the Catholic Church, and they 
retained the doctrine in question, and it is a doctrine 
of their creed to this day. So that the belief in the 
present life as the only period of probation, is confined 
to a small portion of the Church of Christ, and is of 
recent origin. Its brief life must end. It is in direct 
conflict with both Scripture and reason. The Protes- 
tant Church will soon see that the great work of the 
Messiah embraces a department in this world, and a 
much greater department, and that affects by far the 
greater proportion of the redemption of the race in the 
future world. Infants — one half the race, the heathen 
— the greater part of the remainder, will in that 
world first learn of the true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom he hath sent ; will there first be brought under 
the divine moral government, and recognize their 
amenableness to the Christian's God. And it must 
be said, many that have lived and died in the land of 
Protestant Christianity, and have listened to preaching 
called " Orthodox," will then first learn that the God 
of the Bible is " Love," and cannot look down upon 
his creatures writhing in the lake of fire and brim- 
stone with infinite satisfaction. There they will for 
the first time see God in Christ, so loving the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son to die for them. 

The Kingdom of Heaven in this world has been 
thus far but a " primary department," and that, with 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 153 

the exception of the first teachers, but poorly taught. 
The Church, while really unlike the world, is yet so 
feebly characterized, that the line of distinction often 
cannot be traced. Many in the Church are not of the 
kingdom ; while many not of the nominal Church, 
are yet members of the true Church. Not so in the 
higher department. There the " Kingdom " is heaven 
in its perfect holiness and its glory. The present is 
" the first resurrection ; " the future will be " a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory," and its power 
to win those without must be of corresponding efficacy. 

We submit the following as an outline of the rea- 
sons of the hope that is in us on this subject. 

1. The work of the Messiah is essentially gracious. 
His name is Jesus, a divine deliverer. " God sent not 
his Son into the w r orld to condemn the world, but that 
the world through him might be saved." " The Father 
sent the Son a Savior of the world." He says of 
himself, u The Son of Man is come to seek and to 
save that which is lost." Whenever, then, we find the 
Messiah in the exercise of his official function, salva- 
tion is its object. If after death the Messiah had 
disappeared, resolved back into the Deity, the infer- 
ence might have seemed more plausible that the Mes- 
sianic work- was completed. But so far from that, the 
Messiah is not inaugurated till he passes into the 
spiritual world. He then begijis his official work. 
The sphere of the Unseen is the great theatre where is 
enacted the glorious work of the redemption. When 
he ascended " he gave gifts to men," whose value we 
cannot estimate, — the gospel and the Holy Spirit, — 
and by these, the world is to be converted. But he at the 



154 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

same time delivered a multitude of captives, and took 
them to his kingdom, in the heavenly world. Christ 
did, indeed, during the three years of his ministry in 
the flesh, take some inceptive steps in the work of 
separating the sheep from the goats. But it was not 
till he w T as invested with " his glory," that this work 
appeared in glorious accomplishment. At and after 
the day of Pentecost, his inspired apostles " sat upon 
thrones," judging and discriminating with reference to 
membership in the Messiah's kingdom in this world ; 
and while furnishing the criterion for men in the flesh, 
they also "judged angels," who are tried by the same 
standard. 

2. Christ was adapted to his work in both worlds 
by his humanity. In this world the Word became 
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, 
the glory as of an only begotten of a Father, and thus 
the loved, and honored, and authorized representative 
of the Father. " God w r as manifested in flesh " (i Tim. 
iii. 16). " He took not on him (at first) the nature of 
angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham, so 
that it became him to be like his brethren in all things, 
that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, 

. . . having suffered, being tempted, he is able 
to succor them that are tempted" (Heb. ii. 9-18). 
We have not an High Priest which cannot sympathize 
with our weaknesses, having been tempted in all 
things as we are (Heb. iv. 15). It was this manifesta- 
tion of the heart of God, in a form that we could 
appreciate, that adapted the Savior to our feeble ca- 
pacities. 

But we find this same law of adaptation observed 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 55 

in the world of the dead. " For this end Christ died 
and lived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and 
the living " (Rom. xiv. 9). Christ " was put to death 
as to his animal life, but [by that very fact] made 
alive as to his spiritual nature, in consequence of 
which (£v (o) he went and preached to the spirits in 
confinement, that is, the dead (1 Pet. iii. iS, 19). To 
be appreciated as a Savior for the dead, he must go 
to them in their mode of existence, God manifest in 
a spiritual body (nre4ficm) 4 When Christ was, after 
his death and resurrection, inaugurated as Messiah, 
and seated upon the throne of his glory, and made 
thus judge of the living and the dead, he was still " a 
son of man " (Acts vii. 56). It was treatment of him, 
as such, that was adduced in evidence. And on this 
was dependent the verdict for all, including those who 
have never heard of him in the world of the living 
(Matt. xxv. 31, seq.). The Savior tells the Jews that 
the Father has not only given him the power to raise 
the dead, but has given him the prerogative of 
" judgment," and " because he is a son of man " (John 
v. 27). With this qualification he was going to the 
world of the dead, and there as here judge of the qual- 
ifications of men for his " Kingdom of Heaven, " soon 
and contemporaneously to be commenced in that world 
and this. 

We see then that the Messiah was fitted for his work, 
as such, bv manifesting God through humanity — in 
this world by partaking of flesh and blood ((ruoy.l), 
and in the future by partaking of a spiritual body 
(nievuuTi). In each world he is Messiah, and as 
such seeking and saving the lost ; and ever living to 



156 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

employ an available agency {ivTvyzfoeiv} for us. His 
heart towards us is the same in either world. The 
Apostle compares him to the Jewish high priest, who 
entered into the most holy place to avail for sinners. 
Christ entered into heaven itself, to appear before God 
in our behalf. Christ had offered himself once in 
this world a sacrifice, but he carried the efficacy of his 
death with him ; the change to that world not affect- 
ing the quality of his agency in our behalf. He illus- 
trates : It is appointed unto men once to die, but that 
does not affect their relations to Christ and the re- 
demptive work. After death there is the same "judg- 
ment" (xolaig) on the question of their qualifications 
for the Kingdom of Heaven, and Christ there, as in 
this world, will appear for the salvation of those who 
love and trust him. Every one who will study the 
functions of the high priest in the Jewish ceremonial 
will see how eminently and philosophically it was 
adapted to meet the wants of sinners in their desire to 
approach a holy God. This same adaptation, we are 
taught, belongs to Christ, both in this world and the 
future. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews should be studied with 
care in this connection. " This man hath a permanent 
priesthood ; hence he is all-perfect in his ability to 
save those that come to God by him, always living to 
employ his available agency for them (Heb. vii. 24, 
25). He is a priest perfected forever (v. 28), and 
after the power of an endless life (v. 16), a Savior 
forever. So 10-12, Christ having offered one sacrifice 
for sin of perpetual efficacy, sat on the right hand of 
God henceforth, or as a consequence (to lotnov}, wait- 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 157 

ing in expectation till his enemies place themselves as 
his footstool (middle signification like exud-icre in verse 
12. See Phil. ii. 10, 11). So long as there are enemies 
he will wait for them. Nothing could be more emphatic 
in our direction. It may not be said he acts for the 
preservation of the saints. The function of a priest 
was to go to God to secure forgiveness for the peni- 
tent — to purge their consciences from dead works, to 
serve the living God (Heb. ix. 14). Saints in heaven 
do not sin. It cannot refer to them. 

3. Christ is the judge of the living and the dead. 
We are taught in Matt. xxv. 31, seq., by what stan- 
dard they are to be judged — their treatment of Christ. 
But among those to be judged by Christ are the 
heathen nations that lived before the day of his appear- 
ing (Rom. ii. 12-16). It follows then that " the gos- 
pel must be preached to them " in the future world, 
and be there believed or rejected. 

4. Infants are " of the Kingdom of Heaven." 
Heaven is not a place for tilings. Membership im- 
plies moral character. They have none at death, and 
must therefore form such character after death. This 
implies probation and conflicting motives, rendering 
possible a moral choice of the right. They must be 
told of God in Christ, and love and obey him. But 
if the atmosphere of that world is probationary to 
infants, why must it be confined to them? Where 
runs the line between infancy and a succeeding stage? 
And the heathen go to that world as ignorant of Christ 
as are our babes. We must press this point. They 
who believe in the salvation of infants admit the fact 
of probation beyond the grave, admit our doctrine 



158 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

in its entirety. Those conditions which win the love 
and loyalty of the infant, make their appeal under the 
gracious administration of the Messiah to all hearts. 
The painful consequences of sin to those who have 
committed it and known its bitter fruits, would only 
enhance the power of the gracious character of God 
in Christ, as subduing in its tendencies. The Presby- 
terian Confession says, " Elect infants, dying in infancy, 
are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, 
who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth." 
It is believed that there are few Presbyterians or others 
at the present day who would not consider all infants 
as the " elect." But however this may be, elect in- 
fants are regenerated through the Spirit u after death ; " 
and this implies that they are taught the law of God, 
and their obligations to obey ; also, Christ and him 
crucified, for they are " saved by Christ." 

5. The Messiah's commission, which he " received 
of his Father," embraced both worlds. " All authority 
in heaven and upon earth is given to me " (Matt, 
xxviii. 18). He was definitively constituted of God 
" Judge of the living and the dead" (Acts x. 42). 
u All things are delivered unto me of my Father " 
(Matt. xi. 27). God has placed him at his own 
right hand in heaven, far above all magistracy and 
authority, and might and lordship, and every name that 
is named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
is to come" (Eph. i. 20, 21). This commission and 
this position is given him as a Savior. As such the 
sphere of his gracious work embraces both worlds. 

6. His work among the angels was Messianic. 
He was with them as a Savior, therefore " it pleased 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 59 

the Father that in him should all fulness dwell, and 
through him to reconcile all things to himself — mak- 
ing peace by means of the blood of his cross — whether 
they be things upon earth or in heaven " (Col. i.19, 20), 
and all this through his " fulness " of grace. God hath 
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is 
above every name, that in Jesus Christ every knee 
should bow, of those in heaven and upon earth and 
under the earth, and that every tongue should give 
thanks that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father" (Phil. ii. 10, n). wSo Eph. i. 10, What 
had been unrevealed in the past, God had now re- 
vealed that he had purposed in himself, in the ful- 
ness of the times, to gather in Chris" as their head 
(ui <(y.?(f(dui(i)au(jd-£t) all things in the spiritual world 
and upon earth (Eph. i. 9, 10). So of those texts 
which, in the language of David, represent Christ as a 
conqueror, and putting his enemies under his feet, the 
language, as that of the Old Testament, is derived 
from that which represents the conquests of regal and 
military power. But it symbolizes the triumph of 
the Messiah, and therefore the triumph of love and 
grace. The Messianic work is not that of physical 
omnipotence. There were no need that the Word 
should become flesh, and become obedient unto death, 
to crush enemies by physical force. No ; these texts 
represent Christ as employing the moral power of the 
blood of his cross in subduing, in the spiritual world, 
those who in this world were not won. 

7. And it is on this hypothesis alone that we can 
account for the fact that the future world was an object 
upon which the hope of the good fastened, not only 



l6o THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

with reference to themselves, but to the wicked. How 
else account for the enraptured exclamation of the 
apostle before Felix. He had hope toward God 
that there w T as to be a future state (uvuotolgk;} of 
the just and also of the unjust (Acts xxiv. 15), — this 
last annexed (zs) as if a thought deserving special 
notice. Could Paul hope that the wicked would live 
beyond the grave to know only the agonies of the lake 
of fire and brimstone? This were impossible — un- 
less his heart was like that of Professor Shedd's im- 
aginary God, who found infinite satisfaction in look- 
ing down upon that lake of horrors. No ; Paul's 
hope — it was " towards God," and prayerfully and 
confidingly indulged — implied the belief of what 
Peter expresses so positively (1 Pet. 4-6), that the 
gospel is preached to the dead for the very purpose 
that they who " in the flesh " had failed to enter the 
kingdom might then be won. 

When Paul sheds his tears over men it is because 
they are unsaved, the enemies of the cross of Christ, 
wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked, having no hope, and without God in the world. 
And Christ tells men who cannot be admitted to his 
kingdom in this world, that they go away into per- 
petual suffering that has been made ready for them in 
their own character and condition by the devil and 
his angels. The Bible nowhere represents death as 
the fearful crisis beyond which there is no hope. That 
state is attained when sin is " finished," and the char- 
acter as sinful crystallized. Those parables of the 
Savior which speak of a crisis as coming, and soon, 
refer to the Jews and the coming of the Son of Man to 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. l6l 

establish his kingdom — which would involve their 
destruction as the rejecters of their Messiah. And the 
oft-quoted text (2 Cor. vi. 2), repeated with the article 
emphatic, " Behold, now is the accepted time, and now 
is the day of salvation," is without the article in the 
original, and implies only that this day of the Messi- 
ah is favoring those who would secure their salvation. 
8. Our position is sustained by what is said of the 
greatness and glory of the work and the kingdom of 
Christ. The Old Testament exhausts the strength of 
its language upon it ; and the New Testament also, 
and is more specific. Christ is sent to be a (not a the ") 
Savior of the world (1 John iv. 14). In Christ all 
are to be made alive (1 Cor. xv. 22). As the offence 
by Adam affected " the many," so the grace by Christ 
embraces " the many," and superabounds (Rom. v. 
15-19). We do not press texts like these to their 
extreme ; but they do imply that Christ is to bring 
" many sons unto glory" — many relatively. But the 
"orthodoxy" of the past makes the number saved but 
a very few relatively — up to the present time the 
veriest fraction. And if we adopt the theory of which 
this " orthodoxy" consists in part, the millenium is to 
be but one thousand years of the six thousand years of 
almost universal sin and death. " Orthodoxy " stands, 
indeed, by the great central fact, the glory and strict 
divinity of the Savior, and as such, " mighty to save." 
But how reconcile the two facts. Alas, it is done, and 
by making the heart of this Savior such that it can and 
will forever submit to this almost utter failure in its 
great work, and then derive its highest happiness, not 
from the few that are saved, but from the agonies of 
1 1 



l62 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

the vast multitude that are writhing in the lake of fire 
and brimstone forever and ever. 

But even this does not vindicate the propriety of the 
language of the Savior, and of that which he in- 
spired his prophets and apostles to use. And if my 
reverence for my adorable Savior did not forbid, I 
w T ould say of it that, after all allowance is made for Ori- 
ental hyperbole, it is simply braggart. And my Savior 
will not chide, as my object is to express a dissent, with 
all my heart and soul and mind and strength, from the 
theory I oppose. It cages up the Savior, and thus 
places most of the lost race beyond his reach. The 
Savior of my heart's trust is most mighty in his glory 
and his majesty, and in his majesty will ride prosper- 
ously, and from conquering to conquer, and his course 
will reach the utmost limits of our fallen, ruined race. 
I do not believe there is or will be a son or daughter of 
Adam who will not be told of " Christ and him cru- 
cified " as a Savior for all, and be made to feel the in- 
fluence of the cross, so that a great multitude, which 
no man can number, will be saved. 

9. There are texts that state directly that " the gospel 
is preached to the dead." " It is better, if the will of 
God be so, that we suffer while doing good than while 
doing evil. For Christ once suffered for sins, the just 
for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put 
to death indeed as to his animal life, but made alive 
as to his spiritual nature (i. e., the nature of man as 
he exists after death). In consequence of which he 
went and preached to the dead in detention, formerly 
disobedient, when the long suffering of God waited 
in the days of Noah." Here we are taught that 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 63 

Christ went to Hades, and preached the gospel to men 
who had been dead more than two thousand years. 
The "good news " was proclaimed to them. This, of 
course, must imply that the Kingdom of Heaven was 
to be established in that world and in this contempo- 
raneously. In that world, as a higher department of 
the Messiah's realm, this kingdom would be of a 
higher order than that among men in the flesh. From 
the upper world Satan would be cast out (Rev. xii. 
9), and the Kingdom of Heaven would there be perfect 
in its holiness, while on earth imperfection for a time 
would mar the glory of the Kingdom there (1 Pet. iii. 
17-20). 

In very close connection with the above the Apostle 
again asserts the same fact (iv. 6). Speaking of men 
whose sins were those of great ignorance (iv. 4), and 
who knew not what to make of the changed lives of 
converts to Christ, he says their amenableness would be 
to the Savior whose jurisdiction embraced the worlds 
of the living and the dead. And he declares that it 
was for this very reason that the gospel was preached 
to the dead, that while they were estimated according 
to men, i. e., as living according to the standard of men, 
and heathen men as they were, while in the flesh 
(uuayu), they might yet in their future and disembodied 
state (.TiTi/zcm), live according to God, and be saved. 
The success of Christ preaching the gospel to the dead, 
may be learned from Eph. iv. 8 : " When he ascended 
to heaven he rescued a multitude of captives. " 

The texts above quoted from Peter have been very 
embarassing to the men of dogmas, and whose creeds 
could not accept the very obvious meaning of the 



164 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

original terms employed. Great efforts have been 
made to wrench from them that meaning. Yet there 
they stand, and proclaim that u the gospel was preached 
to the dead." * So of those other texts where the 
same is either asserted or assumed. 

10. Reason demands that we shall accept what is 
so plainly taught in t*ie Scriptures. She furnishes im- 
perative reasons for acceptance. Let us dwell a 
moment on this thought. Let us listen to those inner- 
most intuitions of the soul for which man is not re- 
sponsible, but the God who made him, and which 
therefore come with a divine authority. If the human 
mind can form any opinion of what is morally right 
and wrong, and is entitled to pay any deference to 
such opinion, — and if it cannot, then men are not 
moral and responsible agents, — here is its legitimate 
field ; and we state distinctly that these inmost convic- 
tions of right and wrong require that there should be 
a state beyond the grave supplementary to this as pro- 
bationary. We do not forget that God is great, and his 
ways unsearchable. Yet God has so made us that he 
can reveal, and he has revealed to us certain princi- 
ples which we can understand, and can recognize as 
right. And he has taught us to apply those principles, 
not only to our own conduct, but also to his. That it 
is our duty to have confidence in God and in his gov- 
ernment, must be because we can see the reason for 
the same, and it is everywhere in the Scriptures as- 
sumed that such reason exists, and that we can and are 
under obligation to see it (Isa. v. 3,4; Jer. ii. 5, seq ; 

* Appendix C. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 65 

Mic. vi. 3). We may therefore raise the question, 
whether the principles of the divine administration, as 
right, do not forbid the hypothesis that the eternal 
destiny of the race, for weal or woe, as the subjects of 
the divine moral government, is to be decided by what 
they are and do in the present life. What are the facts 
in the case? 

Life is brief. Nearly half the race die in infancy, 
and~ previous to the exercise of the moral functions. 
They then, of course, have no moral character, and 
must form one under a moral government, or else be 
annihilated. 

Then again, life here is inceptive. This is especially 
true of the young. Moral character, like every other 
element of character, has its inceptive period. And 
this inceptive character is like the coming of the morn- 
ing or of the night. Its beginning is scarce cogniza- 
ble. Moral character in children begins in the slightest 
possible shading. In the nature of the case the sense 
of moral obligation must at the first be very feeble. 
With a clearer view of God and his claims, this feel- 
ing of obligation w T ill increase, and disobedience be 
correspondingly sinful. But there are years of this 
kind of history in which the child — this is true, cer- 
tainly, of many — is unconscious of any deliberate and 
designed violation of the known will of God. Chil- 
dren are the creatures of impulse rather than princi- 
ple, and under its promptings do that which they after 
regret, and which, it may be, is morally wrong. But 
how unlike the sin of riper years, when with clear 
knowledge of duty they deliberately trample upon 
the divine commands, and then turn away from the 



l66 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

mercy and forgiving love of the Savior. This period 
of moral childhood lasts through the entire life of no 
small part of the human family. The heathen are in 
darkness. Their knowledge is feeble, and their con- 
victions of duty equally so. And there are many in 
the land of the Bible and of the Christian pulpit 
whose non-acceptance of Christ is rather negative than 
positive. They do not see with distinctness what they 
must do to be saved, and a life of indecision passes 
on and on, and ends. Then there is another class of 
minds, of a more intellectual and philosophical turn, 
that have been embarrassed and kept back by some of 
the various theological dogmas that have been preached 
as part of the gospel, but which seemed to them, and 
were in fact, absurd ; and they furnished an element 
of distraction to their minds when thinking of the 
practical acceptance and exemplification of religion. 
Definite truth, distinctly perceived truth, is that alone 
in which is found the power that moves the will to 
specific action. In all such cases moral character is 
but inceptive. It can hardly be called deliberate and 
recognized opposition to God. To the eye of man 
they need but different views of religious truth to turn 
the scale to positiveness for the right. Will that light 
come to them in the future world, where the monstrous 
dogmas that they have been taught to accept as the 
condition of salvation in this world, w r ill be among 
" the things that were "? 

We think there is something worthy of considera- 
tion in the idea of character as not only inceptive, but 
as progressively developing towards stability in its kind. 
Reason would suggest that this confirmation of the 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 67 

power of habit and of chosen ignorance, rather than 
time, would be decisive of destiny. " Sin, when it is 
finished, bringeth forth death." " He is joined to his 
idols, let him alone." 

Then there is something hurried and indiscriminate 
in the providential disposition of men that seems in- 
consistent with the idea that this life is decisive of 
eternal destiny. They appear upon the shores of time, 
and are rushed across the narrow isthmus of life into 
the vast unknown of eternity. To some it is but a few 
hurried days, or weeks, or months, and they are gone. 
Accidents, or wars, or pestilence, like blind agents, 
take their countless victims indiscriminately — the old 
and the young, the good and the bad, the prop and 
the burden of society. 

As there is an infinite interest involved in the final 
destination of the human soul to heaven or hell, and 
as that decision is to be based upon the conduct of the 
subject of that award, it would seem that in working 
out such a problem it should be with the fact of such 
destiny as pending, known, and with the most clear 
and distinct perception of the reasons in view of which 
he should act. But none of these conditions are found 
in the case of the infant or the heathen. The same is 
true of even the Israel of God, before the coming of 
their Messiah. Not a word was said to them of a tri- 
bunal beyond the grave to which they were amenable, 
and not one solitary motive to obedience previous to, 
or under the Theocracy, was derived from that world. 
The good and the evil were of time and earth. 

Now on the assumption that the life which we are 
living in the flesh is that period in which every human 



l68 THE l.IBLE REGAINED. 

being capable of moral action must decide, by the 
character he forms, his destiny for eternity, can we 
reconcile the facts of human condition, as above stated, 
with the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator? 
We propound this inquiry reverently, and we think 
our interrogatory in the line of a religious duty. 

Is this hasty period of — to very many — extreme 
ignorance, all that is given to man as probation ? Take 
the case of the child above supposed. His sin is 
against only the feeblest convictions, and shaded onlv 
in the slightest degree. Let it be supposed that this is 
the first and the only sin, when the indi scrim inating 
hand of death snatches him away. Say not God will 
apportion the penalty to the offence. This leaves out 
of account certain great and necessary conditions of 
the case. That child, by the hypothesis, is a sinner, 
and passed out of the world a sinner, and without 
repentance. Sin is, as the history of the race tells us 
with such emphasis, self-perpetuating, and is inter- 
rupted in its course only by regeneration, i. e., repent- 
ance and faith. If there is no possibility of such re- 
pentance and faith beyond the grave, then " the law of 
sin and death " must take its fearful course, and the 
career of that child in sin and misery will know no 
end. And the woe that is eternal must be infinite ; 
and all this as the penalty of that one scarcely con- 
scious violation of moral obligation. 

To relieve somewhat the limitations implied in the 
theory that the work of Christ is confined to the pres- 
ent life, it has been claimed that Old Testament saints 
looked forward to Christ, and by faith in him as to 
come, and in his atonement, were saved by him. But 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 169 

this is a mere theological figment, and has no au- 
thority from Scripture.* The ancients, from Noah, 
and especially from Abraham, looked forward with 
hope and faith to a good time coming. But they had 
no idea of a personal Savior as to come, till the time 
of David. The Shiloh of Gen. xlix. 10 had no ref- 
erence to a personal Messiah. The ancients believed, 
and had faith in essentially the same great truth as 
that implied in Christ and him crucified, viz., the 
love and the forgiving mercy of God, and were by it 
sanctified and saved; but it was in no sort a looking 
forward to Christ's " atonement," and being saved by 
such prescience. So that if the work of Christ in 
saving men is confined to this world, it is also limited 
to the Christian Dispensation, and to those to whom 
the gospel is preached. For those who lived before 
the Messiah appeared, and for the heathen, there was 
and is no Savior. 

On a previous page we have said the views above 
expressed were those of the early Fathers of the first 
centuries. They believed that Christ, after he had 
laid aside the body of the flesh, went to the region of 
the dead, and there " preached the gospel," and that 
many were brought to repentance and were saved. 
This was considered " orthodox." The belief" that hell 
^vvas wholly emptied, and that every soul was presently 
relieved from all the pains which before it suffered," 
was considered u heretical." The "orthodox" opin- 
ion w r as advocated by such men as Irenaeus, Origen, 
Cyril Alexandrinus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Augus- 

*New Englander, April, 1871, page 232. 



I^O THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

tine. Irenasus says, " Therefore the Lord descended 
to the regions under the earth, preaching to them also 
his advent, the sins of such as believed on him being 
remitted." Origen says, " With a soul divested of 
its body, Christ discoursed to souls divested of their 
bodies." 

Bishop Pearson says, " This preaching of the gos- 
pel to the dead was the general opinion of the 
Fathers as the end of his (Christ's) Descent, or means 
by which that good was wrought for the souls below, 
which was effected by his death." And again, u Thus 
did they think the soul of Christ descended into hell, 
to preach the gospel to the spirits there, that they 
might receive him who before believed in him, or that 
they might believe in him who before rejected him." 

Clemens Alexandrinus taught that not only the soul 
of Christ, but also the souls of the Apostles, preached 
to the souls below — imitating Christ there, as they had 
done here.* But there was among the early Fathers 
a state of unrest, and from that day down to the ear- 
nest and conflicting opinions expressed by the English 
and American Bishops of the Episcopal Church with- 
in the present century, there is evinced the fact that 
there are errors intimately related to this doctrine that 
must first be corrected before a settled and harmonious 
opinion can be formed. The Bible teaches that the 
gospel was preached to the dead and to the lost in that 
world. So thought the ancients and the moderns. 
But how reconcile it with the fact that there had been, 
from the death of righteous Abel, and of the sinners 

* Pearson on the Creed, pp. 349-352. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 171 

of his day onward, a heaven and a hell in the modern 
theological sense of those terms? Those in heaven 
needed no redemption, and those assigned to the suf- 
ferings of legal penalty could, of course, have no offer 
of mercy. Thus they reasoned. Others believed in 
a great Day of Judgment at the end of the world, 
and in an intermediate state of unconsciousness that 
should continue till that day. Of course, then, there 
could be no redemptive processes carried on upon 
unconscious subjects. These errors being assumed as 
truths, the texts which we have presented in support 
of our position must be subjected to any strain neces- 
sary to bring them into harmony. 

The discussion of the Descent of Christ into Hades 
by the Episcopal Church in England and the United 
States shows the same diversity and conflict of opin- 
ions as among the Fathers of the early centuries ; and 
for the reason that essentially the same disturbing 
forces are found in the same errors. We shall be 
pardoned if we hope and expect that a careful and 
candid examination of the doctrine of the Descent, in 
the light of, and in its relations to the facts of the 
theory advocated in these pages, will show that all is 
consistent, and the language of inspiration need be no 
longer tortured to harmonize with itself in all its parts, 
and also that it will pour a flood of light and glory 
upon " the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 

We think it appropriate in this connection to quote 
from the Book of Common Prayer, published in the 
fourth year of Edward VI., A. D. 1552, the following : 
" As Christ died for us and was buried, so also is it 
to be believed that he went down into hell, for his 



172 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

body lay in the grave till his resurrection ; but his soul, 
being separated from his body, remained with the 
spirits which were detained in prison, that is to say, 
in hell, and there preached unto them." 

In the Shorter Catechism, set forth by royal authority 
in the following year (1553), the Descent is thus ex- 
plained : " That he truly died, and was truly buried, 
that by his most sure sacrifice he might pacify his 
Father's wrath against mankind, and subdue him by 
his death who had the authority of death, which is the 
Devil ; for as much as not only the living but the dead, 
were they in hell or elsewhere, they all felt the power 
and force of his death to whoili lying in prison (as 
Peter saith) Christ preached, though dead in body yet 
relieved in spirit." 

The opinion was entertained by the more recent of 
the Fathers, and of the believers in the fact that Christ 
preached to the dead, that it was confined to the brief 
period between his death and resurrection. They be- 
lieved in the literal resurrection of the body, and that 
from death till the resurrection the soul existed as pure 
spirit. The language of 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, was inter- 
preted accordingly, nvevuari (the spiritual, or post 
moi'tem state of the man) was supposed to imply the 
soul in this incorporeal state, and must then be limited 
to the "three days." Then ev to ("in which") was 
supposed to refer to nvetymu (the soul). Hence it 
was rendered, " In which incorporeal state of the 
soul he went and preached," &c. But 3* co should be 
rendered " wherefore," i. e., in consequence of which 
facts, viz., that he had lived and suffered and died, 
and that he was now, by his death, in a state of consti- 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 73 

Uitional life, like the dead, — he went and preached to 
dead men, as he had done in the flesh to men in the 
flesh. 

In concluding this topic, of such overwhelming im- 
portance, we must say that there is no doctrine more 
distinctly and unequivocally taught in the Scriptures. 
It is assumed in so many relations, and thus taught by 
indirection ; it is again and again directly stated and 
explained ; no language could be more explicit. Then, 
on the other hand, the attempt to support the opposite 
opinion has required such glaring sacrilegious violence 
in wresting the language of inspiration, and especially 
the Gospels. And then such principles of the divine 
moral government, and such necessary implications to 
the prejudice of the character of God. We turn away 
from these horrors, and see instead the truth, plain 
and obvious, of the gospel, and rest in the vision of 
God in Christ, whose heart we read in the tears, and 
the agony, and the sweat of the Savior. The opinion 
above expressed I avow with joy unspeakable. Of it 
I have u the full assurance of understanding." 

VI. The moral power in this gracious administra- 
tion furnished by the heart of God as revealed by the 
Messiah ( r ) ; by his perfect life as a man ( 2 ) ; by the 
doctrines he taught ( 3 ) ; by the institution of heaven 
( 4 ) ; and by a perfect system of religious culture ( 5 ). 

i. The heart of God is the great fact in the uni- 
verse. The social and the religious character in men 
are in their primary elements the same. Both have 
their origin in the same principle of our nature — 
sympathy. By this we can make the good or the ill 
of another a source of pleasure or pain to ourselves, 



1 74 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

and thus make his interest a part of our own. This 
extends to moral qualities. If he is benevolent, we 
bestow approbation and complacency, just as we do 
upon ourselves in such case. The same is true of 
him in relation to us. We are thus reciprocally the 
objects of complacential and of benevolent regards. 
Each finds in the other, thus good, an incentive to be 
the same. Each has a twofold approval. 

So with God and man. Each sympathizes with the 
other, and makes his interests his own. Each is 
under moral obligation to the other, and is bound in 
that relation to act benevolently. But God is infinitely 
great, and w r e are infinitesimally small. God is eter- 
nal ; we are of yesterday. The leadership then, in all 
these social reciprocations, must be in God. He has 
made us, constitutionally, in his own image. He must 
bring these elements of constitutional character in us 
into play by the address to them of the correlative 
elements in himself. There might be a slight devel- 
opment of social and moral character between man 
and man, and a conscience "void of offence towards 
man " in the absence of a knowledge of God. But 
the great function of the mind would be undevel- 
oped. The great correlation of his being in man, is 
between himself and God. God, then, must be known 
to him, and in affectional and practical relations. And 
here we perceive the sublime significance of what the 
Savior said to Nicodemus, " Ye must be begotten from 
above (dtyto&Ev)." " God is love." Love in us is " of 
God." " We love him because he first loved us." 
" He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God 
in him." Love is the radical element out of which all 
other traits of Christian character grow. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 75 

But no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and 
he to whom the Son may reveal him. God was 
manifest in flesh. In methods that we can appreci- 
ate, he acted out his love in the Son. The Savior 
then became the medium through which the sympa- 
thies of the heart of God and man could blend. Christ 
loved us and died for us. Hence the power of the 
Cross of Christ ! When he was lifted up upon it he 
drew all men unto him. God so loved the world ! 
Here is the power of God to salvation. 

( 2 ) We learn from God, as revealed to us through 
our intuitions, the great principles of love and law ; 
and, in general, the method of their application. We 
are so far forth made in the image of God as to ren- 
der this possible. Yet there are points of dissimilarity 
which place a limit to our self-application of abstract 
principles. We want a model more in detail, princi- 
ples exemplified in minute particulars, and that address 
the imitative rather than the logical and inferential 
faculties. We want a perfect man — tempted in all 
points like as we are, yet without sin. We want a 
human soul with which to blend, and thus flow on in 
its direction. We want the specific acts of a man, that 
we, as men, may do the same. All this we have in 
the max Christ Jesus, who went about doing good, 
holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. 
And he was a man in his relations to God, and as 
such gave his heart up entirely to absorption into the 
heart of God, so that the heart of God had its utter- 
ances through his heart. And in this, as in other 
things, he is our example. 

The Savior carried out this principle of adaptation 



176 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

into both worlds, as we have seen. " To this end 
Christ died and lived,* that he might be Lord both of 
the dead and living (Rom. xiv. 9). That what Christ 
did and suffered on earth had great influence upon the 
world of the dead we know. Indeed, the great mani- 
festation was made here r and in it all he was " seen 
of angels." Still there was additional adaptation to 
his work among the dead by the change in his consti- 
tutional being effected by death. He thus became 
like unto the angels, and was " in all points " familiar, 
and by them could be appreciated as familiar with 
their experience, and they learn, as we have done, the 
great principle of love and law from their exemplifi- 
cation by Jesus Christ. 

( 3 ) The doctrines of special importance from their 
moral power were, — 

(a.) The vitiated state of the race constitutionally 
and morally. The application of a moral government, 
and of such probation as would develop a character 
of which man is capable, and which, for him, is in- 
finitely desirable, has resulted in his fall. From that 
fall a merely legal or regulative administration would 
not restore him. 

(&.) Christ had come into the world to meet this 
condition of the race, and to save it, — " not to 
condemn." 

(c.) In addition to all that himself as Messiah could 
do, God as a Spirit would dwell on earth, and as 
himself had done, and as God under the Old Testa- 
ment period had done, employ miraculous power to 

* This is the reading of manuscripts, S. V. A. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 77 

save the world. Under the Old Testament adminis- 
tration " the Spirit of the Lord " implied miraculous 
power in him who possessed it. This same " Spirit 
of the Lord " was to be a part of the Messianic gifts 
(Joel ii. 28, 29). The Apostles had it. The early 
Christian Fathers had it. We have it, and should 
have it in larger measure if our faith expected it. The 
specific character of these miracles will, of course, de- 
pend upon the circumstances of the times. We of 
this day do not need it as a means of confirming the 
truths of religion. We need it to open the Scriptures 
to us, as the world and the church shall be able to 
receive them. We need it to teach us " what to pray 
for as we ought." * A great amount of " agony " in 
prayer is wasted, so far as direct results are concerned, 
by the want of a practical faith in this particular. It 
is the privilege of the Christian to be a co-worker with 
Christ in the cause of human salvation. Thus to co- 
operate successfully, the Christian must know much 
in detail what are the plans of God in relation to 
given times and places. Shall a minister accept a 
call to a given field of labor? Shall a church resort 
to special efforts to realize a pentecostal season of 
refreshing to themselves and to the congregation? God 
may know that the facts in the case at present forbid 
his own special interposition, and that the hopes of 
the church cannot now be realized. Will not he re- 
veal this to their faith, so that they may act for some- 
thing specifically different? Elijah was told when to 

* xa&b del, as it is necessary, to accomplish the real object 
of prayer. 

12 



178 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

pray for rain. Moses and Jeremiah were told not to 
pray for certain things which they much desired. 
Elijah is quoted as an example illustrating the nature 
of the prayer of faith, which assumes that Christians 
of every age shall be specially taught of God what to 
pray for " as they ought." Prayer has not for its object 
in the divine plan to inform God of our wants, but to 
secure results upon ourselves. It is only when we 
are in harmony and sympathy with God that we are 
efficient in the service of God. Prayer, in the utter- 
ances of desire in a given direction, prepares the mind 
for effort in that direction. Where we should work, 
there should our prayers concentrate. But we must 
then have specific directions. This we may have. 
And this is as really a miracle as was the inspiration 
of the sacred writers. O, how much has the Church 
of God yet to learn of the greatness of the blessing 
implied in the promise of the Spirit ! Under the for- 
mer dispensation, the man to whom was given " the 
Spirit of the Lord " was looked upon with reverence. 
Kings and nobles deferred to him. That same Spirit 
was, under the Christian dispensation, to be poured 
out upon all flesh, not upon kings and eminent saints 
merely, but upon the servants and the handmaids. 
The Spirit of Elias may be mine, and guide me in all 
the details of life. 

- The writer has had prophets in his church, fathers, 
and especially mothers, in Israel, some of them in re- 
tired and humble life, and all unconscious that they 
wore theUrim and the Thummim. Yet by them was 
indicated to their pastor not only the present, but the 
coming condition of the church. If a revival was at 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 79 

hand, they would " feel" that it was so. If other ex- 
periences were first to be ours, that too was evinced. 
Such texts as Isa. iv. 5. 6; Joel ii. 28, 29; James v. 
16-18; Rom. viii. 26, 27, imply a guidance under the 
spiritual administration of the Messiah as actual and 
unerring as that of old to Israel of the pillar of cloud 
and fire. 

But it is objected, " This would be a miracle. " 
Ver} r well. Miracles have been an element in the 
gracious administration of God from the first. The 
difference between a miracle and an ordinary event 
is not that both are not alike the effect of direct and 
immediate divine agency. There is no power but in 
mind. Matter is inert, and every leaf that trembles 
in the breeze is moved like the air around it by the 
direct action of the divine will. In constructing the 
crystal every chemical atom of the carbon is moved 
and put in its place by the finger of God. God em- 
ploys his power to some extent in uniform methods, 
that we his creatures, by a prescience of what will be, 
may use this power for our own benefit — as in the 
weight of water, the expansion of steam, &c. But 
there are other methods where this uniformity is not 
observed. What have been called miracles are in- 
stances. The weather and the seasons under the 
Theocracy were such (Deut. xxviii. chapter). Who 
can say they are not such at the present day. Mir- 
acles now are adapted to the purposes of a moral 
administration rather than civil ; but God is equally in 
both ; and we may pray for rain and for a revival of 
religion with equal propriety. The Spirit's divine 



I So THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

aid, and for which we always pray, is a special divine 
interposition, in other words, a miracle. Why then 
object to a miracle to teach us God's plans within the 
sphere of our own agency, that we may thus be intel- 
ligent and intentional " workers together with God "? 
Why not expect God to tell us when to pray for a 
revival, and when not to pray for it, and to adapt our 
'efforts in his service to the condition of our field of' 
labor? The praying and labors of some ministers and 
churches would be illustrated by the husbandman who 
should scatter the "precious seed" over his fields in 
every month of the year, December and January in- 
cluded, and pray the Lord of the harvest to bless it all 
alike ; and who should worry his soul in the attempt 
to " get up" the " prayer of faith " for a harvest from 
the seed sown in January, and confess his sin for 
u short-coming." The husbandman knows God's pur- 
poses in relation to the season, " for God hath showed 
it unto him." It is equally important that the spiritual 
laborer should know God's purposes in his sphere ; 
and it is only as he does, in the one case as in the 
other, that he can be a " laborer togethei\with God." 
" Ye are God's husbandry." 

We are aware that this doctrine is not accepted even 
in theory, still less exemplified, by most of the churches 
and ministers of the present day. They do not expect 
to hear the voice of the Lord : " Speak, for I have 
much people in this city," " Come over into Mace- 
donia," " Arise, go towards the south, unto the way 
that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza," u Go 
near, and join thyself to this chariot," " Make haste, 
and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. iSl 

not receive thy testimony," " Pray not for this peo- 
ple, for I will not hear thee." They do not expect 
such divine guidance in their work. Hence they 
spend their strength for nought. 

I see no reason why such special divine interposi- 
tions are not as much needed now as in any other 
period of the Church's labors. We do not need mir- 
acles for the same reasons as in the days when the 
reality of the Theocracy or the divinity of Christianity 
were to be established in the convictions of men ; but 
we do need — it is indispensable to our success in the 
work of the Lord that we should have — the special 
divine teaching and guidance of which w T e speak. 
When will the church open its heart to receive the full- 
ness of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. 

All the affairs of this world, where there are living 
and voluntary creatures, are carried on by large ad- 
mixtures of miracles, — for such the acts of agents are. 
In countless methods, by the agency of men and ani- 
mals, Nature's laws are suspended or interrupted. 
Why then should it be thought a thing incredible that 
God should employ his agency on the same principle? 
Enough of his power is employed in established 
methods to enable us to use it for our advantage as 
forces of nature, as we call them. But why should 
not more be expected? And wiry should not God tell 
us what we need to know the better to serve him? 

Note. The great fact in infidelity, is the denial of mir- 
acles. This very denial is itself a miracle, and implies a sus- 
pension of the laws of nature. Infidels talk of the force of 
nature, and of the uniformity of its operation. What do they 
mean by ''force "? The only idea of force or power possi- 



l82 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

ble to the. human mind, is obtained by the generation and 
use of power. I lift my hand. That hand is inert matter, 
and has no power to lift itself. The power is in my mind. 
What is true of my hand, is true of all matter ; it is inert, and 
in itself incapable of change of place or relation. So that all 
such change in the material universe is the effect of power or 
force in mind. And "laws of nature" are but methods of 
the manifestation of power originating in the mind of God. 
In the movements alike of the heavenly bodies, or of the ulti- 
mate atoms in chemical changes, each and severally is the 
effect of force, direct and immediate, from the divine mind. 
To minds whose intuitions are faithful in reading their own 
consciousness, these are self-evident truths. 

As we have said in the text, God employs the force of his 
own mind, to a certain extent, in uniform methods. These 
we call " laws of nature." To what extent we do not know. 
That there are not changes out of the range of our observa- 
tion — in the atmosphere for instance — not thus uniform, 
we cannot tell. The only reason, so far as we can see, of 
such uniformity in the exercise of the divine power, is, that we 
may avail ourselves of God's omnipotence in our own work, 
so much of which is so far beyond any force possible to us, 
as in steam, water-power, &c. That there should be other 
than these regular methods of the divine power, would seem 
entirely probable — perhaps we may say, to our minds 
necessary. Assuming — what the infidel denies — the in-, 
spiration of the Bible, we know that the axe of the prophet 
swam, and that the rain or the drought in the Holy Land was 
used, and arranged with reference to their use, as rewards and 
penalties in the Theocracy. But we know unqualifiedly, and 
the infidel knows, that ourselves, and the entire animal cre- 
ation, originate and use, in methods utterly irregular, force 
in effecting changes in the condition of things in the world. 
Indeed there are few things in which the divine uniform 
methods are not modified in their operation by the interpo- 
sition of these irregular forces of animal life. So that what 
we call the providence of God, or — if the infidel pleases — 
the order of things in the world, depends upon uniform 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 83 

methods of force in connection with irregular methods. 
Such, then, is the "nature of things." All things are full of 
agents — men, animals insects, some of them too minute to 
be seen by the naked eye. each modifying the condition of the 
world. Now who can say that if God, or, if you please, Nature, 
employs to such an extent irregular forces, that God or Nature 
does not sometimes originate and employ them directly. To 
tie up the hands of the " Power not ourselves " is to make it 
a slave. Say not it is a thing. We have seen that things do 
not originate force. It has its origin in free agents, in mind. 
Now, then, with any definition we can give of a miracle, as 
the interruption, or suspension, or deviation from the laws 
of nature, we say that the world is full of miracles. The c e 
"laws of nature'' are interrupted or suspended in ten thou- 
sand instances all around us and constantly. If it be said 
that a miracle supposes God's power to be employed in these 
irregular methods, who can prove tha^ that, upon which 
depends the divinely constituted course of the world, and 
which he has made us capable of doing, he will not himself also 
do? Nothing is more probable. To deny miracles is to de- 
ny to the divine mind one of the sublimest attributes of our 
own minds — freedom; or, if the existence of God is de- 
nied, it is to convert nature into an iron machine. But the 
man who denies the existence of God is no more to be rea- 
soned with than he who denies his own existence. That 
there is a God, is one of the most positive and certain of our 
intuitions. Who denies it is insane, or else has metaphysi- 
cised himself out of the most primal and elementary functions 
of his being. 

An especial work of the Spirit is to convict men of 
sin, and righteousness, and of judgment. In methods 
mysterious to us, he so presents truth to the mind of 
sinful men as to secure this result, and thus bring 
them to repentance, to c; newness of spirit and new- 
ness of life." They become u a new creation in Christ 



1S4 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

Jesus." The rebel becomes loyal, the alienated loving, 
and to him that before was " without God in the 
world," God is u all and in all." 

And in this connection we may refer to the special 
divine agency in the development of the religious 
character in the normal order. 

The mind of the infant is first addressed by the 
senses. Through these it acquires a knowledge of 
things which address the intellect and the reason. 
Next in the course of development is the affectional ; 
the most important department of which is the social. 
The mother becomes an object of attachment and love, 
and trust, and fear, and loyalty. Next is the religious 
element. This is developed by the knowledge of its 
object. The child can love God, as it loves its parent, 
only by knowing him in practical relations. But in 
acquiring the knowledge of God, unlike what is true 
of the objects of social regard, the senses are not in 
aid — at least not as directly as when the person, the 
voice, the smile, or the frown of the mother are 
actual through the testimony of the senses. To 
" know God " effectually, implies methods of teaching 
not at the command of parental love and skill. God 
must bring himself, in the mysterious methods of his 
operation, into direct contact with the mind, so that 
it shall t; be taught of God." In this way the great 
and all-important element of its character and being 
has its beginning. It had before been begotten and 
born to a natural and earthly life ; now it is " begot- 
ten from above," and ,4 born again. " 

This new birth is not peculiar to the race as sinners. 
It belongs to them as human. It is but the natural 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 185 

and normal process that belongs to them as men. If 
the race had not fallen, the same great fact would be 
a part of the experience of every child that should be 
born. And as grace in Christ works in the same line 
of direction with the laws of our nature, when that 
grace and its laws shall be understood and practically 
applied, and really act in their normal methods, this 
same order of development will belong to the sons 
and daughters of fallen Adam. And parental faith 
will give the child to God, to be regenerated and em- 
ployed in the service of God. With religious charac- 
ter thus begun, the grace in which it began will per- 
petuate it even unto the end. 

And we may remark that it is only this theory 
that gives to infant baptism the least propriety. Bap- 
tism is, like circumcision, a sign of what is pre-existent 
(Rom. iv. 11). And when intelligently practised, the 
baptism of an infant implies that the child has been 
given to God in Christ, in reliance on the promise, " I 
will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee," — 
given, to be begotten again, sanctified, and employed 
in the service of Christ. And it is among the hopeful 
signs of the times that Christians are recognizing the 
fact that a man may be a Christian and yet not know, 
nor his parents know, when he was converted. Our 
theory makes the fact to be of easy explanation. The 
time will come when all will be thus " born again." 
The system of grace in Christ is constructed on this 
principle ; and when the New Jerusalem shall " come 
down from God out of heaven," this normal operation 
of its power will be exemplified. And any Chris- 
tian who has enough of the millennium in his heart 



1 86 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

may now sow and reap on this blessed theory. And 
he who does not thus live, has seen Christ " but in 
part." 

( 4 ) By the institution of Heaven. The heaven of 
the New Testament is but the higher department of 
" The Kingdom of Heaven," of which the real church 
on earth is the lower, or " first resurrection " (^ brdaroc- 
aig i\ 7T^coT7y, Rev. xx. 5). 

We have seen that the departed of our race had 
dwelt together in Hades, much as the good and the 
bad in this world live, — Samuel and Saul, the rich 
man and Abraham. But contemporaneously with the 
establishment of the "Kingdom of Heaven" in this 
world, was that of a similar though higher department 
of that kingdom in the world of the dead. The Mes- 
siah's commission embraced the living and the dead. 
The good here, though radically right, are yet, in de- 
tail, not perfect. Sin and repentance may be, and 
thus far, in most cases, have been, a part of their 
history. But in the world to come, with so much less 
of temptation, and so much of favoring influence, they 
are sinless. In the Kingdom of Heaven above the 
conditions of membership are sinless holiness. That 
the attainments of the earthly church will be higher 
and higher, till they come to perfection — to holiness 
without alloy, the page of prophecy tells us. And 
the language and the obvious import of the gospel in 
relation to the exceeding richness of the grace of 
Christ justify this expectation. Faith may offer the 
prayer, " Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 
But in the other world a heaven of perfect holiness 
and of higher constitutional capabilities dates from the 
enthronement of the Messiah. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1S7 

That there is such a heaven now awaiting the good, 
none will doubt. That it was not also in readiness 
for Abraham and the patriarchs, some may doubt. 
But we have seen that before Christ the good and bad 
lived in the spirit land, with only such separation as 
exists between the classes in this world. The Savior 
told his disciples, when about to leave them, that he 
was going to make ready a place for them, and would 
come again to receive them, and that their home would 
be with him, that they might behold his glory. He 
was about to pass to the spirit world, there to be inau- 
gurated as the Messiah " in his glory/' and from that 
world to administer over both that and this his gracious 
government. To the capital of this vast kingdom he 
would take his friends. No such kingdom, no such 
capital, and no such King of grace and glory had 
existence till then. 

David had not ascended into heaven at the day of 
Pentecost. Neither Moses, nor Elias, nor Samuel 
spoke of heaven, or made any report of what is in 
heaven. They had not ascended. Not so after Christ 
was glorified. Paul ascended to heaven and returned, 
and tells us he saw what he was not permitted to re- 
port. The elders and others who were actors and 
reporters in the vision of John were in the midst, and 
spoke of heavenly things. Nothing of this kind in 
the Old Testament. 

Heaven in the future w T orld is relatively what the 
church is in this. Men are there judged, as in this 
world, with reference to membership in the kingdom. 
There, as here, they who believe in Christ are accepted, 
and they alone. Others "go away," to know only 
perpetual suffering (xoIuglv). 



l88 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

The immense influence upon the Apostles and early 
Christians of the heaven which the Savior promised 
them as he was about to leave them, is obvious to the 
most superficial reader of the New Testament. Their 
largest hopes were met. Their highest aspirations 
had an attainable object. Heaven was attractive to 
them as for themselves personally the highest possible 
good and glory. The same was true for the friends 
whose welfare was dear to them. And in heaven the 
Savior, whom they adored, would be glorified. 

With such an interest attainable to men, the value 
of man was enhanced, and their benevolent interest in 
men thus awakened to the utmost efficiency. For 
themselves, for their fellow-men, for their Savior, here 
was all they could ask or conceive. What more could 
they ask, only that they might live up to their high 
privileges. 

This was not a mere abstract idea or theory. They 
were brought into close and sympathetic connections 
with that world of glory. Christ manifested himself to 
them. A miraculous power was theirs, attesting not 
only the truth of their message to other men, but to 
themselves the reality of the unseen and glorious 
world. From the Apocalypse of John they learned, 
as we may learn, that the eye and the heart of all 
heaven was upon them in their struggle (i Cor. iv. 9), 
and that their own and the sympathies of heaven were 
blending. Earth lost its charm and faded in eclipse. 
The sphere of the unseen rose into the ascendant, and 
became controlling and absorbing. " I live, no longer 
I, but Christ liveth in me," " Having a desire to de- 
part and be with Christ." The power was great of a 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 89 

personal and present God, as known by Abraham and 
some of his posterity. But how much greater as re- 
vealed in Christ, and in the Kingdom of Heaven. The 
heart of man at once expanded, and humanity devel- 
oped in proportions of symmetry and glory. Christ 
had breathed into them his own Holy Spirit. 

( 5 ) By a perfect system of religious culture in both 
worlds. 

(1.) The present. The one great object of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews was to show that the Old 
Testament system was imperfect in this respect, while 
the grace of Christ was perfect. (Vide Heb. ii. 9, 10 ; 
xi. 18; iv. 14-16; v. 8,9; vii. 11, 18-28; viii. pas- 
sim; ix. 11-14; x. 19-22; xii. 18-24; xiii. 20, 21.) 
Paul contrasts the Mosaic and the Christian periods in 
2 Cor. iii. 7-18. 

In this connection should be named the church and 
its functions. The original church was designed by 
the Master to be as " leaven in the lump," a power 
doing its work, not " with observation," but as simply 
moral, and radiating from individuals in their individ- 
ual capacity, and from the truth of the gospel they 
may employ. The church was without corporate 
organization and without authority, or the possibility 
of corporate and official action. The church was one, 
and included the entire membership of the Kingdom of 
Heaven. Its members were to be the agents of Christ in 
accomplishing his work in the world in " making all 
things new." They had no rites save Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, and no badges save a countenance all 
radiant with peace, and love, and joy, and earnest pur- 
pose to do and suffer for Christ. All this the Savior 



190 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

meant when he said, "My kingdom is not of this 
world." It does not seek the ends, or act on the prin- 
ciples, or by the methods, of this world. But there 
was a profound philosophy in it. It was the quiet, 
gentle power of holy lives, and pure and loving spir- 
its, influenced by a faith that made real the sublime 
facts of the sphere of the unseen, as revealed in the 
gospel of Christ. It was, to the philosophy of the 
Greeks, " foolishness," but it was the power of God 
to salvation. 

The church, though without formal organization, 
yet employed concerted action, and informally ap- 
pointed committees, e. g., the committee of seven on 
charities (Acts vi.), teachers, overseers, &c. Every 
man, who was capable, preached the gospel, and the 
man of business employed his skill in the temporali- 
ties of the church. Thus the entire system of the 
means of grace for themselves as Christians, and for 
the w^orld around them, was brought to bear upon the 
great object. Local organized churches, so universal 
at the present day, were then unknown. They should 
be now. Ecclesiastical courts and authority, and judi- 
dicial action, through all their grades, from Popery to 
Congregationalism, are of u this world." And their 
effects are evil.* 

(2.) The future world. The representations of the 
future world as it then was, by the writers of the Old 
Testament, would seem to place it at the widest re- 
move from a condition favorable to intellectual or 
religious culture. (Vide Isa. xxxviii. 18 ; Ps. vi. 5 ; 

* See Appendix D. 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 191 

xxv. 9; lxxxviii. 10-12; cxv. 17; cxliii. 3; Job 
x. 21.) 

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle gives us 
a very different view of that world. u These — the 
Old Testament saints — all having honorable testimony 
for their faith, received not the promise, God having 
provided some better things for us (he is speaking of 
religious culture), so that they without us had not at- 
tained to a perfect condition." The Apostle takes the 
argument, which he had pursued at such length in 
relation to the different conditions in the particulars 
under consideration in this world, of the Old and New 
Testament periods, and applies it to the world of the 
dead in these periods. Theirs had not been, but was 
now, under the Christian dispensation, a perfected 
condition (Heb. xi. 39). 

All the great facts of earth implied in the Kingdom 
of Heaven here, in effecting such improvements in the 
condition of men, would have the same effect in the 
world of the unseen. Christ, in his personal history, 
and in the results of his official work upon men, was 
seen of angels, and his church under his care was a 
spectacle to angels ; and the effect upon their minds 
would be the same essentially as upon ours. This 
would be true of the unveiling of the heart of God by 
Christ ; also of the life and death of Christ as the 
" man Christ Jesus," as illustrating the tendencies of 
the gospel. 

And all along through the ages, while light has been 
increasing in this world, we may suppose a more rapid 
increase in that. We hope they have had no " dark 
ages," and none of those monstrous philosophies, falsely 



I92 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

so called, that have given to this world such appalling 
theologies. 

All that is said in the Scriptures of the future world 
as one of greater capacity, of clearer knowledge, of 
beholding the glory of God and of Christ, of no longer 
seeing through a glass darkly, but face to face, and 
of knowing as we are known, bears in this direction. 

These remarks have application not only to the saints 
in their upw T ard course, but also to those in Hades, 
whose hearts had not been subdued by the past. These 
may live according to God (*«t& Oebv) in their spiritual 
being (1 Pet. iv. 6). 

VII. The gracious government of the Messiah in 
both worlds, is to continue till religion has become 
universal and perfectly controlling in this world, and 
Satan, not only as a persecutor {pQay.o)v^ Rev. xx. 1, 
2), but in his more comprehensive character (2aT«yac, 
Rev. xxi. 7)1 will have done his work and be de- 
stroyed. 

This brings us to the page of prophecy. As we 
understand the Apocalypse of John, the binding of 
the dragon (Rev. xx. 1-3), which represented the civil 
persecuting power, synchronizes with the triumph of 
Christianity in the Roman Empire, thus destroying the 
power to persecute the church. Civil government 
would be administered by men of kindred spirit with 
the martyrs (Rev. xx. 4). This prosperous and happy 
state of the church would be a kind of earnest of heaven 
— a " first resurrection " or elevation to spiritual life and 
Christian privilege, partaking in a higher degree of the 
heavenly. During tins time the world would be making 
progress. We see it in our day. But the prosperity of 



THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 1 93 

the cause will awaken hostility in those who do not 
sympathize with Christ ; and there will be a brief show 
of opposition ; but it will be crushed at once, and Satan, 
who has so long deceived the world, be destroyed — his 
work done. He had been cast out of heaven when 
Christ came ; now he is banished from the earth. 

And now a new era. Sin is to cease, and holiness 
be universal. As introductory to this happy state, the-, 
accounts of the period of sin are to be settled. Men 
in the flesh are gained to Christ. But the dead in 
Hades are all summoned, yea, Hades and death them- 
selves, here personified, are summoned to their doom. 
As the whole earth is holy, the work of the Messiah 
in Hades will cease, and as the transition of men from 
this world to the future will be but a privileged trans- 
lation, death and Hades come to an end. And if any 
man is not found written in the Book of Life, he, like 
the personifications, is destroyed. 

Then succeeds the new heaven and the new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. The tabernacle of 
God is with men, and he will dwell with them. This 
happy scene the prophet presents more at length in an 
episode. The New Jerusalem comes down from God 
out of heaven. The scene is on earth, and represents 
the normal state of the race, as restored by our divine 
Redeemer. 

Here ends the scroll of prophecy. Here the curtain 
drops. Christ has put down all opposition, and re- 
established die kingdom to God. This is the " con- 
summation " (jtlog, i Cor. xv. 24). 

13 



i 9 4 



THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT FALSE ADVOCACY COR- 
RECTED. 

THE discussion of this doctrine is not embraced 
directly within the design of this volume. The 
truth of it has been assumed. But since writing the 
preceding pages it has occurred to me that they give 
us a new stand-point from which we may view the 
doctrine, and especially the reasons ordinarily assigned 
in support of it. 

By this doctrine, as commonly held by Evangelical 
Christians, so called, is meant the fact that, at death, 
all who have not been the subject of the great change 
which the Savior calls " being begotten from above," 
— including non-elect infants, and the heathen who 
have never heard of Christ, — meet the frown of an 
angry God, and enter upon a period of fearful agony, 
that may be properly represented by being cast into a 
lake of fire and brimstone, and that this agony can 
never know an end or abatement. Also, that this suf- 
fering is inflicted as a penalty. 

Every careful observer of Christian public sentiment 
must have noticed the fact, that within the last fifty 
years the belief in this doctrine has become less and 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 1 95 

less practical. This is true of our pulpits. Ministers 
have shrunk from the earnest enforcement of it. And 
when, to preserve their reputation for orthodoxy, and 
to satisfy their consciences, they have brought the sub- 
ject to their pulpits, they have preached — not as Jon- 
athan Edwards preached, u Sinners in the hands of an 
angry God," but in subdued and softened phraseology 
and manner. And a change quite as noticeable has 
occurred in the pews. The churches are restive under 
the presentation of this fearful theme. They shrink 
from it themselves, and they think — and it is so — 
that the w T orld will not hear it, and will be driven away 
from the house of God. 

Is there evidence in this that Eternal Punishment is 
one of those erroneous doctrines that the church has 
outgrown, and which the more correctly adjusted 
convictions of Christian communities cannot accept? 
There are, it is w T ell known, certain doctrines of the 
past of which this is true. They have not been as- 
sailed in form, and brought to a violent end. They 
have died a natural death. For instance, the doctrines 
of the guilt and ill desert of Adam's sin imputed to 
his posterity; the damnation of infants ; the natural 
inability of sinners to do their duty ; willingness to be 
damned as the condition of salvation ; the intermedi- 
ate state of unconsciousness between death and the 
end of the w r orld ; and, soon to be added, the literal 
resurrection of the body that is laid in the grave ; and 
a quid- fire-quo atonement as an element in a moral 
and gracious administration of government. The hu- 
man intellect and heart grows from age to age. Hence 
in science the abandonment of former theories and the 



I96 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

acceptance of other and better in their places. Hence 
also, the change in theological opinions of which we 
speak. Nature and the Bible are from the same God, 
and have been both "inadequately understood and erro- 
neously interpreted. Each age lifts up the human 
being, and he sees objects through a purer medium, 
and, with a more extended horizon under his vision, he 
sees individual objects in more extended relations, and 
to be adjusted into new combinations. Progress is an 
eternal principle in human condition, and will evince 
its tendencies and its power in religion no less than 
in science. And he who will not accept this fact, but 
must stereotype the dark ages, resists the Holy Ghost. 
We hope, indeed, and believe that the day will come 
when errors in exegesis and theology will no longer 
exist to be abandoned, but progress will know no end. 
And we must not assume that all errors are eliminated 
from Christian belief till " sects " shall be a w T ord no 
longer in use. 

Or is it the erroneous advocacy of the doctrine of 
eternal punishment that is outgrown ? Whatever may 
be true of the doctrine itself, this certainly is true. 
And this doctrine is not a solitary instance of such 
misfortune. The doctrine of the divine sovereignty, 
for instance, as it stands in its simplicity in the Bible, 
is dear to the heart of the Christian. It is a precious 
thought that the infinitely glorious God, our heavenly 
Father, is alone our King, and without admixture of 
influence from any source out of Himself, and that we 
are amenable to him alone. We have perfect confi- 
dence in God, and in his government. He doeth all 
things well. Yet this very precious doctrine, as per- 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. I97 

verted by John Calvin, and especially by the New 
England divines of the last century, with all the claws 
and teeth furnished by an ethics that makes God "Jus- 
tice," and not " Love," becomes abhorrent to every 
unsophisticated mind and heart. So with the doc- 
trine of future punishment. The advocacy of it has 
been monstrous. There is no doctrine by the advo- 
cacy of which such a ploughshare of havoc has been 
driven across the fair field of inspired truth. The day 
in which we live repudiates this. The waning power 
of dogmatic authority, the growing habit of personal 
independent thought, the riper scholarship, and I may 
add. the increasing and more symmetrical holiness in 
the church, that comes more directl}' and nearer to 
God, and more distinctly beholds him as he is — these 
all conspire to furnish a light in which these distortions 
and rendings of the sacred text appear in their true 
character. The doctrine of the perpetual suffering, 
and moral helplessness of the wicked, which the Bible 
teaches, presents God as " Love " and our Heavenly 
Father, and gives us in the Messiah a Savior in tears. 

If the positions taken in this our attempt to present an 
outline of religious truth are tenable, it clearly follows 
that the argument for the support of the doctrine of 
future punishment must be reconstructed. I will sug- 
gest some of the particulars embraced in this assertion. 

1. Eternal punishment is not proved by the neces- 
sities of penalty. It was the great argument of a 
former day that a perfect moral government implied 
the strongest possible motive to obedience, and as 
implied in that, an infinite penalty. But we have 
seen that penalty — an indispensable element in a civil 



I98 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

administration — can have noplace in a moral gov- 
ernment.* 

2. By the claims of Justice. Much is said of the 
justice of God, as if it were a constitutional element 
o'f his being, a susceptibility that is gratified directly 
and immediately in inflicting evil upon transgressors, 
like conscience, that is gratified by the doing of right. 
The old theory, or rather one of the old theories, and, 
indeed, with some the present theory of the Atonement, 
is, that God's justice was provoked by sin, and it must 
be "pacified" by the infliction of suffering — if not 
upon the guilty, then upon some one else ; and that 
the personal feelings of God must be conciliated before 
he would take any measures of grace for men as sin- 
ners. (Vide Hovey's " God in Christ," Part II , 
chap, i.) 

Justice is not an ultimate. Justice is acting towards 
all on the principle of right. And right is that which 
is adapted to promote the highest good of all con- 
cerned. This is true of national and state laws. 
They are just when right, that is, benevolent and wise 
in their intent and structure. Justice is the impartial 
and wise enforcement of these laws. Any infliction 
of penalty not required by the good of the community 
would be injustice.-)* Just government in its legisla- 
tive and executive departments must be benevolent, 
and the infliction of any evil not demanded by the 
safety of the subjects would be revenge. And the 

* Appendix B. 

f Clement of Alexandria says, Qlog 6h ov TSfioyqenai' iari 
yuQ 7{ iLiw)ola xuzov uvTurzodoaig • xoltx'^ei juai'TOi ngog to /orj- 
aitioi' xul y.oii'T^ v.ul idlq joig xoXa^Q/nhoig. See, also, Daniel 
Webster' - Plea at the Trial of Knapp. 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. I99 

same is true of the government of God. Justice is the 
doing of what the good of his kingdom requires. God 
has no personal feeling to be gratified, no personal 
wrath to be " appeased" by the infliction of suffering 
on his creatures. " Our Father." 

We have, on another page, attempted to show that 
all the evils to the transgressor that follow in the train 
of sin are admonitory and reformatory, and have a 
benevolent design for the sufferer. God is benevolent 
to the wicked in both worlds, and will make each and 
every one of them as happy as he can be. Every 
capacity that is left to them, that they have not by 
perversion destroyed, God will be happy to fill. 
God is benevolent to the devil. There is no penalty 
in hell, and no personal revenge theie. Every woe is 
self-inflicted, and pity is its correlate in the bosom of 
God. That is my feeling towards the wicked, and it 
were blasphemy to suppose the heart of God were less 
tender than my own. " We love God because he first 
loved us." " Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a sacrifice 
for our sins." " While we were enemies we were 
reconciled to God (not God to us) by the death of his 
Son." When Christ gives up sinners to their doom 
it is with tears, and those tears are right from the heart 
of God. 

3. By the import of faibviov ("forever"). This 
is the Greek word by which the LXX. translated the 
Hebrew bVj*. Every scholar knows that the pri- 
mary idea in this word is " occult, hidden," and as 
applied to time, means " obscure and long, of which the 
beginning or end is uncertain or indefinite." Applied 



200 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

to time past, it means "gray antiquity" (e. g., Isa. 
lxiii. 9 ; Amos ix. n ; Deut. lxxxii. 7). Time not very 
remote is sometimes indicated (Isa. lv. 12; lxi. 4). 
When it refers to future time, the extent of its reach 
[terminus ad quern) is to be determined by the nature 
of the subject. It is applied to the duration of human 
life, as, " He shall be his servant forever/' i. e., as long 
as he lives (Deut. xv. 17) ; an uncertain and indefinite 
period. 

In some cases, when the import of the Hebrew 
reaches beyond what is implied in aubviov, it is in- 
dicated by an additional word, thus : The Lord shall 
reign, top dci&pa xal en 1 ui&va y.u.1 bti j forever, and yet 
longer (Ex. xv. 18). Shine as the stars, elg tov; caw- 
vaq^ v.o\i lxi (Dan. xii. 3), i. e., forever, and yet longer. 
This, then, is the Old Testament use of dudvwv (for- 
ever). The New Testament writers used the Septua- 
gint, and imitated its phraseology. Jl&v signifies an 
age, or period, or dispensation, to which it applies. 
And the rivo ukLpiop (everlasting fire) and xolacnp aicbpi- 
ov (everlasting suffering) of Matt. xxv. 41, 46, refer 
to the evils of being left out of the ''Kingdom of 
Heaven " primarily to the Jews, but also to all. The 
'Qo)r\v ki&viov (everlasting life), is not necessarily thus 
limited, because Christ promises to take those who 
embrace him to heaven by his special grace. And 
when there, we may apply to their life the y-u-l en of 
Dan. xii. 3. They will not, when confirmed in that 
world of safety, apostatize. Besides, heaven is the 
normal state of man. He is holy and happy, and con- 
firmed in his holiness. The restorative work of Christ 
is accomplished. And we can conceive of no reason 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 201 

why such condition should be terminated. It is the 
end for which Christ enacted his great work. And 
besides, the saint in heaven could come to an end only 
by a miraculous non-action, since in God " we live, 
and move, and have our being." Not so with the 
wicked. We have shown elsewhere that an infinite 
evil, as threatened, cannot be employed upon the human 
mind as a dissuasive from sin. If it could be, and had 
been, the veracity of God might necessitate the inflic- 
tion. But as that necessity enters not into the case, 
we may say that there may be reasons why the suf- 
ferings of the wicked will come to an end, — by their 
reformation, or because the safety of the good and the 
glory of God no longer requires them. We do not, 
however, press this argument. The eternity of either 
good or evil is not a doctrine of the Bible. We will 
consider this statement more at length on a future 
page. 

Something analogous to the above is found in the 
Old Testament period. Evils were threatened and 
good promised, and huhviov (everlasting) is applied to 
both. The reward and the penalty were propounded 
to them as Jews, and in their national capacity for the 
most part. Among their blessings was the destruc- 
tion of their enemies, who were to be destroyed " for- 
ever and ever" (Isa. xxxiv. 1-15). The time came 
when the Theocracy was at an end, and with it the 
Jewish nation. Of course then the ""everlasting" 
was at an end. The same principle applies to the Mes- 
sianic dispensation. The Messiah has a work to do. 
When that is done, " then cometh the end " (rt/.o;), and 
then the principles on which the Messianic administra- 



202 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

tion has been conducted, come to be no longer appli- 
cable. What is to succeed the Messianic administra- 
tion we do not know. The good and the evil of that 
period (atcoi ) are aubriov, and nothing more. The 
y.(xl hi is wanting in the New Testament. — But it is 
said that u forever " is applied to God, and must 
therefore mean eternal. "Great" is applied to God. 
Does "great" then signify infinite? And was the 
" great stone " that Jacob rolled away from the mouth 
of the well, to accommodate his loved one, a stone of 
infinite dimensions? In Jude (6), aidloig (everlasting) 
imports only until a day of judgment (els xq(oiv). See 
i Pet. iii. 19 ; 2 Pet. ii. 4. For the use of dutiv, see 
1 Cor. ii. 7 (ngb) ; Matt. xii. 32 ; Gal. i. 4 ; Matt. xiii. 
22 ; Rom. xii. 2 ; 1 Cor. i. 20. 

We have referred to the use by the LXX. of the 
Greek aahviov (everlasting) as determining its im- 
port. We regard this as the highest authority. Still 
the etymology of the word is very decisive of its im- 
port, dl&v, claimed to mean eternity, is derived from 
(V/w, to breathe, then to live. From the idea of breath 
comes that of life as equivalent, since life and breath 
are always together ; then life, as a period during which 
a man lives ; then an age, or dispensation, or period 
of indefinite length. This last was the ordinary use 
of the word when the New Testament was written. 
The phrase " end of the world," in the English trans- 
lation, should have been u end of the (then present) 
dispensation." And the derivative adjective takes the 
same import ; and, as said above, " the everlasting pun- 
ishment" and "everlasting fire" of Matt. xxv. are 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, 203 

the sufferings of the dispensation, or of indefinite 
length. Christ was upon the throne, and men in this 
life were by him and his inspired apostles judged with 
reference to membership in the kingdom here, and 
those not accepted were left out unsaved, wretched, 
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. In the 
coming world the rejected would be left to suffer the 
evils of that department of the " dispensation." The 
mistake of Prof. Lewis in rendering the phrase " suf- 
ferings of the world to come," grew out of the assump- 
tion that the "judgment " of Christ was exclusively in 
the future world. 

That &<c£y (age) does not mean eternity, is certain 
from the use of it in the plural (elg tov; bmvag) ; and 
not only so, but it is thus used in the plural in a con- 
nection which implies that plural is but a part of the 
many of the same kind (tl; jov; ht&vag tg^ caco*o;>), 
the ages of ages, i. e., certain ages which are but a part 
of the many ages. See olkop in 1 Chron. xvi. 15-18, 
and Ps. cv. 8, where it is used, as also ut&viov, as equiv- 
alent to u a thousand generations," and both refer to the 
covenant with Abraham, and to the possession of the 
land of Canaan by his posterity. All that is meant by 
phrases of this kind is an extended but indefinite 
future. And there is not a word 01 a phrase in the 
Sacred Volume that imports more than that. Immor- 
tality is applied to God alone, as self-existent (1 Tim. 
vi. 16). In 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54, it refers to the spiritual 
body, as not like the animal body, subject to disso- 
lution. 

If in the phrase " ages of ages " the parts be under- 
stood as factors, as we say tens of thousands, or thou- 



204 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

sands of thousands, the limitation of &*c6*> is shown 
with much greater emphasis, 

Aristotle is often quoted as using &*(£*> as signifying 
eternity, and deriving the word from hel and &*% always 
existing. But Aristotle uses the word to express the 
supreme source of all things, and as distinguished from 
the inferior and transient aions, he being a permanent 
existence, ever existing. \4ei is used with the same 
latitude as our English always. (See 2 Cor. iv. 11 ; 
Acts vii. 51 ; Heb. iii. 10; Mark xv. 8.) 

God's government is, of course, a just government. 
It must therefore be adapted to the capacity of its sub- 
jects. This is true of all rightful human governments. 
The young child is not placed under a law that threat- 
ens imprisonment for life as the penalty of his childish 
transgressions. To place him there were monstrous. 

The analogy of God's treatment of men in other 
governmental particulars is in point. After the Fall, 
and during the infancy of the race, there was almost no 
law, and so far as there was any, no evil was predicted 
as a dissuasive from disobedience (Rom. v. 14). What 
God said to Cain implied that he knew right and 
w T rong, and had a conscience, and that to do wrong 
brought along with it evils of different kinds. And 
after the flood, and for generations, we find but a very 
imperfect code of morals. Through the entire Ante- 
Messianic period God derives no motives of his gov- 
ernment from beyond the grave. The Jews, God's 
favored people, with their superior knowledge, were 
not sufficiently developed to be placed under a gov- 
ernment that embraced with the present the future and 
unseen world, and whose awards of good and evil were 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 205 

to be in both worlds. And their contemporaries, the 
heathen, were not held at all amenable to the moral 
government of God. They were not capable of such 
amenableness. God gave them up, and suffered them 
to walk in their own ways. 

Now, was there any such change in the capacity of 
the race, or of the Jews even, at the time Christ ap- 
peared, as to justify an infinite enlargement of the 
sphere and of the magnitude of the motives employed 
in the divine administration over man? and, as is im- 
plied, an infinitely greater amount of responsibility to 
attach to every act? And besides, the gospel was to 
go to all nations, many of whom were less developed 
than were the Jewish nation at any period. It was 
for little children. There can be but one answer. A 
short time before Christ came, the light of a future 
world was dawning upon a portion of our race. 
Christ brought out into distinct recognition the great 
doctrine of an immortal life. And that was a great 
enlargement of the sphere of human interests. Yet 
now, as before, the future reached away into indistinct- 
ness, and became no longer a source of influence or a 
fact of reference. And there are no stronger terms 
employed to denote the extended future ofi the new, 
than had bee?i of the old covenant. 

And I submit the question, Can the human mind 
believe the doctrine of " eternal punishment"? And 
I answer, with positiveness, No ; and for the reason 
that it cannot conceive of it. It cannot take in, and 
make practical, the idea of the eternity of either good 
or evil. Of course it does not believe that of which it 
has no conception. 



206 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

As involving the same principle, it maybe remarked 
that the idea of the infinite God cannot be entertained 
by the human mind. It is not required. u The know- 
able of God" (rd yvoHjxov zov Oeou) is the limit of 
our obligations. We can love no more of God than 
we can know. We have, then, no practical concern 
with the infinite in God. The Logos is to us the prac- 
tical*Deity. And as in the nature of God, so in the 
government of God^ the infinite and the eternal are in 
no practical relation to us. To speak of an infinite 
penalty threatened, and to be inflicted upon a finite 
creature, is a solecism. 

God does not employ upon us, as responsible, the in- 
finitesimal. He does not require us to know the size 
or the shape of the atoms or the molecules that are 
concerned in chemical changes, or to understand or 
practise the masonry by which such molecules of car- 
bon are built up at so exact and uniform an angle into 
the crystal. All this is beyond the knowledge or 
range of the human mind. Equally beyond its range 
is the infinite. To estimate it as it is, and to be in- 
fluenced by it in corresponding degree, is beyond its 
power. The divine government over us finds its 
motives in the intermediate sphere and in the range 
of our capabilities. This sphere will enlarge with ex- 
panded capabilities. Ours of this day is larger than 
was that of the patriarchs and prophets of the Ante- 
Messianic dispensations. After death our capacities 
will doubtless be much greater than at present, and 
the range whence will be derived our motives corre- 
spondingly increased. So that it may be that many 
who in this world were not saved, will there find life, 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 20"J 

and the sins of others be of a deeper dye. But a crea- 
ture will never be able to comprehend the infinite. 

We do not assert that the thought of an end to the 
sufferings of the lost would not be in some sort a miti- 
gation of the evil threatened to the sinner. But he 
could have no conception of the amount of evil he 
would thus escape. It would be infinite, how long 
soeveivthe period of suffering, first to be endured. So 
that this only strengthens our position, that such eternal, 
and therefore infinite suffering, cannot be threatened 
and thus employed upon man as a dissuasive from 
sin. He can have no conception of it. His ill desert, 
therefore, cannot be infinite. 

We do not say that the sufferings of the wicked 
will not be eternal, but only that it is not threatened 
as an appropriate element in a just moral government 
over men as they now are. 

We have seen that the sufferings that follow in the 
train of sin are only from the operation of laws of our 
being which have for their object not such suffering as 
a penalty, but the preservation of our being in health 
and happiness, in both body and mind. The design 
of the susceptibilities through which we thus suffer is 
protective, dissuasive, and reformatory. This has been 
true under all the forms in which the moral govern- 
ment of God has been administered over the race thus 
far, and certainly seems as if a primal element of the 
divine administration. It is so in one department of 
the administration of the Messiah, i. e., in the world 
of the living. Of course it is so in the department of 
the dead. It cannot but be so in all the Messianic 
dispensations (ui&ve;) of the future. Suffering under 



208 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

the benevolent government of God must be reform 
atory. 

What will be the result in all cases we cannot know 
only as God may reveal it. The painful consequences 
of sin in this world do not always reclaim. The inebri- 
ate suffers and dies, suffering the consequences of his 
vice, and while knowing that reformation would re- 
store him to health and respectability. The same 
freedom of the human will, and the same liability to the 
slavery of that will, we must suppose will go with 
us into the future. And there, as here, some may be 
unreclaimed by what they suffer, as self-inflicted evil. 
Still it follows from this view of the nature and tenden- 
cies of suffering that the door of forgiving mercy will 
always stand open. And if there is no hope at any 
period of the future it will be from the force of habit, 
and the slavery of the will, and not from the heart of 
God. " Whosoever will, let him come," is written in 
letters of infinite distinctness and eternal radiance all 
over the universe of God. The devil and his angels 
read it every day, and will forever. In this world sin 
sometimes palls. Will it be so in the future world? 
It seems to have been so with " the rich man ; " with 
the devil and his angels otherwise. And our philoso- 
phy of mind would compel us to believe that so long 
a period of sin, and such force of habit, and such in- 
tensity of opposition and hostility, and such slavery of 
the will, would preclude the expectation of a change 
of character, save from bad to worse. The devil and 
his angels are not suffering by inflictions from without, 
a sense of the justice of which might soften their 
hearts, and prepare the way for forgiveness and recon- 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 209 

ciliation, but their chains their own hands have forged, 
and love to forge. They " love death," and hug their 
chains. 

If any are thus unreclaimed, and their sufferings, as 
a consequence, are eternal, that suffering, thus self-in- 
flicted, will be intense, as could be no positive inflic- 
tions from without. It will be the gnawing worm 
within. 

We do not adduce our philosophy of mind as proof 
of the eternity of persistency in sin and consequent 
suffering. We do not know what Christ can do in 
11 the coming dispensations " (Eph. ii. 7)- The deepest 
feeling in the Christian's heart is in the direction of 
hope. 

The effort of the Christian is, in all things, to bring 
his soul into sympathy with God, so that his estimates, 
and interests, and feelings shall all be in harmony with 
God's. Can the human mind do this in the threaten- 
ing and the infliction of an eternal and infinite penalty 
upon a portion, and on the common theory, a large 
portion, of our race? Is it possible for men to have 
any sympathy in this matter with God? If it be sup- 
posed that we may have such overwhelming evidence 
from other sources that God is wise and good, and 
that we may for that reason accept it as what we sup- 
pose must be and is right and holy, — though we are 
unable to see how it can be reconciled with benevo- 
lence in God, or perfect blessedness in his holy crea- 
tures, — this is not to sympathize with God in the in- 
fliction of this evil. And the very nature of the human 
mind forbids that we should. It is impossible. 

Let it be supposed that the church of Christ on 
H 



2IO THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

earth could entertain the belief that, somehow, the 
work of Christ would not cease till in " the administra- 
tion of the fullness of the times " he had become " the 
Savior of all men," that his errand as u a Savior of the 
world " would be completely accomplished. The 
race saved ! What a burden would be lifted off from 
every sanctified human heart ! What a song of praise 
would go up from the Church of God on earth ! All 
hearts would dissolve in joy, and blend with the heart 
of the great Savior. And how much more glorious 
would seem to be the riches of the grace of God ! 
What another thing would seem the creation of the 
world, and of our race upon it ! What another work 
Redemption! O, the burden upon my heart as now 
I write, how would it pass away, and heaven, O, 
more than heaven, a thousand times more, begin on 
earth ! Can Christ thus save us? If he can, he will. 

We are aware that the effort is made to vindicate 
the goodness of God, while admitting the doctrine of 
eternal punishment, by an appeal to reason. Dr. Dex- 
ter entitles his book on the subject, " The Verdict of 
Reason.'' But instead of showing the reasonableness 
of the doctrine, he shows that it is reasonable to ac- 
cept as true what an inspired volume teaches — than 
which no two positions could be at a wider remove. 
That the Bible teaches the doctrine, he does not show. 

Prominent among the modern philosophical at- 
tempts to reconcile the fact of endless misery in the 
creatures of God with the benevolence of their Cre- 
ator is the article of Dr. Hickok, entitled u Perpetual 
Sin and Omnipotent Goodness." * But we are unable 

* Bib. Sacra, January, 1S56. 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 211 

to become convinced by it. To our eye the writer 
and his subject are in a dense cloud. While profess- 
ing to be philosophical and scientific, he dispenses en- 
tirely with definitions, and also with any analysis of 
the most important facts in the case. On his theory, 
for God or man to act on the principle of benevolence, 
is to practise benevolence as a means of personal 
gratification by exciting a constitutional susceptibility 
to pleasure in doing good, or rather desiring good to 
others, — as we taste the sweet, or look upon the beau- 
tiful as a means of personal gratification, but with no 
objective motive out of ourselves. He appeals, there- 
fore, from Benevolence as the ultimate and all compre- 
hensive principle in the divine administration, to 
"Right," and " Rectitude," and " Honor," and self- 
respect. God must, in his treatment of men as fallen, 
act " for his own worthiness' sake," and as is " due 
to his own excellency." These terms, as Right, 
Honor, Worthiness, and others, he does not define 
for his readers, and evidently has no definition for 
himself. On our philosophy, to put Right above Be- 
nevolence, and as the Ultimate, is a tivisoov nQoieqov 
(inverting the order of nature). And the conclusion 
of the whole matter is, that as God does such and such 
things, they must be in accordance with his sense of 
honor and compatible with " his own worthiness " — 
begging the question. — Dr. Squire, in his t; Problem 
Solved," succeeds no better. He fails also in his anal- 
ysis of benevolence, and comes to the same conclu- 
sion. 

4. By the fact of future suffering. Dr. Dexter makes 
the proof of future suffering proof of eternal punish- 



212 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

ment. Suffering ! It is the condition of the highest 
blessedness. God suffers. There is no element in 
the history of " God manifest in the flesh" more prom- 
inent than suffering. In this world, as we have seen, 
it is the condition of the highest elevation in character 
in Christians. It is prominent among the means that 
bring men to repentance. The multitudes that wel- 
comed the Savior as he went (nvetifmn) to Hades, and 
were all ready to accept him, and ascend with him, 
and celebrate his inauguration to the Messiahship and 
the throne of his glory, had found that world of shades 
only such as could gladly be exchanged for the Palaces 
and the City of the Great King. Of course those who 
do not in this world accept the Savior, will find the 
chastisement (xolounv} of Matt. xxv. 46 only intensified 
by the change of constitutional being at death. But 
this suffering will not be penalty. 

5. By the fact that men die unholy. We have seen 
that in the world of the dead there is, as in this world, 
a reclaiming and pardoning Savior. 

6. By the fact that there has been a judgment and 
condemnation relating to their conduct in this life. 
Such a judgment as they assume who adduce this fact 
in support of the doctrine of eternal punishment of the 
impenitent, is not taught us in the Bible. We are at 
all times before the judgment-seat of Christ. He that 
believeth not the Son has condemned himself already, 
because he has not believed. He may repent, not- 
withstanding, and thus cease to be under condemna- 
tion. Every man is condemned till he repents. The 
occurrence of death does not change his condition in 
this particular. It only removes him from one depart- 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 213 

ment of the Savior's gracious work to another. " After 
death is judgment," the same as here. And if he 
suffers eternally, it will be because he refuses to repent 
and seek forgiveness. 

7. The doctrine of eternal punishment is not proved 
by the asswnption that disbelief of it would demoralize 
the world. I say " assumption," for that such would 
be the effect cannot be proved. There are weighty 
reasons that lend support to an opposite opinion. The 
prospect of evil appeals directly to fear, but only indi- 
rectly, and through the law of self preservation, to con- 
science. The history of men in the midst of the 
greatest dangers, and those so near as to be easily 
realized, argues against this assumption. Men are 
converted into demons, instead of being subdued and 
led to penitence and prayers, by the pressure of great 
dangers. The diabolical conduct of bad men in cities 
visited by the plague is proverbial. It was such at 
Athens when visited by this fearful scourge. So at 
Milan in 1630, at London, 1665, and at Bagdad, 1831. 
The history of these cities at these times of danger and 
death was as if of a carnival of hell. Revelry, pro- 
fanity, blasphemy, plunder, murder, lust, were the 
order of the day. When multitudes were dying on 
every side, there were those who made sport of their 
sufferings and death, and often hastened their end that 
they might seize the treasure they possessed. The 
effect of fear in these cases was utter and hellish des- 
peration in wickedness. We think we have seen at 
the present day, and in a numerous class in the com- 
munity, the same tendency evinced under the preaching 
of the doctrine of eternal punishment. 



214 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

The great errand of the Savior into this world was to 
bring the power of love to bear on the human mind. 
" God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son," and we love him because he first loved us. Love 
is the burden of the gospel. The life of the Savior 
was full of it, and when he was obliged to speak of 
the evils that were to come upon the Jews he did it 
with tears. And the preacher of his gospel must have 
the same spirit. It must be in his themes, in his tones, 
in his eye. And his call to men must be for their sym- 
pathies with Christ in his love. That preaching which 
makes too prominent the terrors of the law, will result 
in a type of religion, so called, that is only a modi- 
fication of the selfish principle, and will fill the church 
with men whose only religion is to keep out of hell ; 
and whose spirit and lives will be in keeping with their 
selfishness, draped in the garb of sanctity. 

We have in the church at the present day many just 
such men, and from this cause. The writer, not long 
since, listened to a course of sermons from an Evange- 
list who has produced a great excitement, both in the 
East and the West of our country, the burden of whose 
message was that men must go to Christ to keep them- 
selves out of hell. The hearers of such preaching are 
moved in proportion to the intensity of their selfish- 
ness. There is a class of easy men who let the 
future take care for itself — in their business and their 
religion. Such men are not likely to be " converted " 
by such preaching. Another class are earnestly, and 
practically, and effectively selfish. They are planning 
and acting for the future. They want, and work hard 
to get money. And they are equally, and as practi- 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 215 

cally, and for the same reason precisely, in earnest to 
get religion. And they labor hard to become excited, 
and to stir up their fears of hell ; and they succeed. 
But the agony is exhausted, and a lull succeeds. They 
feel better ; and they take this to be the beginning of 
" the rest" of those who believe. And this admitted, 
joy follows of course. They are converted ; and they 
join the church. But they are, and have been through 
the whole process, supremely selfish. And they have 
become religious because they were intensely and 
effectively selfish. Said a practical and considerate 
man of business to me, " If I want to be skinned 
to the bone, I will do business with church members." 
Such is the legitimate effect of preaching to the fears 
of men rather than to their consciences. 

We have elsewhere referred to the fact that what 
the Savior and his Apostles said of the evils that were 
coming upon the wicked was rather predictive than 
minatory. 

What would be the effect of a belief in the ultimate 
triumph of Christ in his Messianic work by gather- 
ing all things into harmony and love, we of mod- 
ern times have had no opportunity to learn. We 
all believe that in this world Christ is to triumph, 
and there is inspiration in the belief. Not only do 
Christians feel it, but the community feels it. The 
cause of missions, as looking to that result, commands 
their respect. And so does the gospel the more from 
its adaptation 10 an end which is so great and good. 
If such is the effect of the prospective triumph in this 
world of the love of that Savior whose official mission 
is to •' the living and the dead," would not the same 



2l6 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

law apply in the belief of a similar triumph in the 
world of the " dead "? The fact is, man is conscious 
of his ruin — not exactly in the " orthodox" explana- 
tion of that term, but in general. He sees the dark 
picture of his race presented by the state of heathen- 
dom, as also the appalling demonstrations of depravity 
in communities nominally Christian. " Every creature 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together/' And an 
enterprise which addressed their hopes, and which 
they could see was really the enterprise of love — who 
can tell what effect it would have upon that numerous 
class, the seriously thinking men? If these were 
gained for Christ and his church it would change the 
relative weights in the scale. And with this addition 
to the church, and that church proclaiming the ultimate 
triumph of the Savior's love, — a fact that would en- 
hance the conviction of the present purity and intensity 
of that love, — the redemptive elements in our world 
would be greatly modified. Of course we state this 
as hypothesis, and to neutralize the opposite hypothe- 
sis. And in this same line of thought we may inquire 
if this may not have been among the reasons of the 
greater success of the Apostles. The burden of their 
message was the love of Christ, and the triumphs of 
that love both in this world and the world to come. 
And if the doctrine of eternal punishment were not 
taught elsewhere, it would be very easy to understand 
their Epistles to mean that God would ultimately 
" gather together in one, all things in Christ." And 
it is to be presumed that in their preaching they did 
not make so prominent the doctrine of future punish- 
ment as did John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards; cer- 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 21 7 

tainly not the doctrine of penalty. And, as I under- 
stand it, the same is true of the missionaries of the 
present day. In their preaching to the ignorant heathen 
they have less occasion to inculcate u the doctrines/' 
so called, and tell only the story of the love of God in 
Christ, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of 
the world. 

8. By the teachings of the Old Testament. We are 
amazed that the attempt is made to find it there. It 
weakens the argument. One irrefragable proof stand- 
ing alone, is better than that same proof with half a 
dozen doubtful proofs besides. Each one of these 
adds weakness. 

9. By the voice of antiquity. It was the nearly 
unanimous opinion of the fathers of the first centuries 

-that the redemptive work of Christ was carried on in 
the future world. And most believed that it would 
ultimately accomplish the salvation of all. Origen, 
near the close of the second century, was distinguished 
as the advocate of this opinion. He was among the 
greatest and most spiritual of the fathers. His father 
suffered martyrdom, and himself lived in constant ex- 
pectation of it. He towered above all others of his 
day as an indefatigable and successful exegete and the- 
ologian. He is the father of theologv — the first who at- 
tempted to reduce to a system the truths of Christianity. 
His belief in the final salvation of all w r as accepted by the 
very many students who flocked to him as their teacher. 
From this Alexandrian school the doctrine was propa- 
gated, and became the prevalent belief of the church. 
This was the belief of the martyrs. Some two hundred 
years after we find a discussion of the question, 



2l8 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

whether all or only a part will be delivered from the 
pains of hell. Augustine, the champion of the church 
at that time, speaks of the fact that the work of Christ 
in Hades will save many ; but whether all will accept 
the grace, he is not positive ( " adhuc requiro" ). In 
the middle of the sixth century w r hen spirituality had 
evaporated from the church, and a debauched and 
avaricious priesthood had chained down to their au- 
thority the opinions and practice of the laity, and 
required of them only external ceremonies as the con- 
dition of salvation, the retributions of the future world 
were equally palpable. Literal fire- and brimstone 
were the means of torture in hell. And deliverance 
from such a doom was to depend upon the priest and 
his manipulations. To make this threatened evil as 
great as possible was the policy of the selfish mana- 
gers. And the eternity of literal hell fire became the 
doctrine of the day. This was " orthodoxy." And 
the worthless and wicked Emperor Justinian became 
the supple tool of the priesthood. He issued an edict 
in which the doctrine of Origen was pronounced 
heresy. " If any one says or believes that the punish- 
ment of devils and wicked men will be temporary, 
and will have an end, or that there will be a recovery 
and restoration of devils and wicked men, let him be 
anathema" It is claimed by party historians of that 
day that an ecumenical council, called soon after, in- 
dorsed the ecclesiastico-civil condemnation of Origen- 
ism, but the most competent ecclesiastical historians of 
the present day believe the introduction of the name 
of Origen Was surreptitious, and that a majority of the 
council were in sympathy with this greatest and best 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 2IO, 

of the fathers. But the opposite opinion had been 
pronounced orthodox by the Emperor, and has been 
accepted as such from that day to this — except, per- 
haps, more recently the literal " fire and brimstone." 
Of the Christian Fathers who are entitled to any 
special respect, very many believed in the doctrine 
of the complete success of the work of the Messiah in 
the future world, while those who doubted if all were 
thus saved, did not regard the opposite opinion heret- 
ical. Both were in good fellowship. And the sanction 
of denouncing such opinion heretical is found in the 
practice of the lowest type of a debauched and selfish 
priesthood. Augustine, as we have said, believed that 
Christ, by going to hades and there preaching the 
gospel, would save many. Whether he would save 
all, he could not prove. But adds, " Who would not 
rejoice if this could be proved? " 

10. By the fact that, in modern times, Universalists 
to such an extent have been irreligious men. The 
writer can remember when, in the good u orthodox" 
community where he was born, " Universalist " and 
u irreligious " were nearly equivalent terms. The ex- 
planation is obvious. The reign of dogmatic author- 
ity, which had its origin in the days of Justinian, and 
which had come down through the ages in unabated 
vigor, secured in the minds of those religiously edu- 
cated the belief in the endless punishment of the 
wicked as a part of Bible truth. And however un- 
reasonable it might seem, it was accepted as one of 
the mysteries of our holy religion. But there was a 
class of men whose religious sentiments were but 
feebly developed, and who had little reverence for the 



220 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

Bible. And when the reasonings of these men led them 
to the conclusion that an infinite penalty for the com- 
paratively heedless sin of a child was unreasonable, 
they accepted that verdict of reason. Possibly more 
than that ; and rejected the inspiration of the Volume 
that taught it. This of course is not said as descrip- 
tive of the present day. The number is not small 
now, of those who, devout and spiritual men, are the 
disciples of Origen. We have praying Universalists, 
and whose lives furnish no evidence in disproof of 
their doctrines. 

ii. Is it taught in the Gospels? The life of Jesus 
Christ was spent, as we have said, under the Mosaic 
economy. During his ministry he spoke repeatedly of 
the Kingdom of Heaven as about to come, and of him- 
self as the Messiah. He said this, especially, as his 
death drew near. But he made no attempt to disturb 
the Mosaic order of things. On the contrary, he says 
" it became him to fulfil all righteousness " of the law. 

We are to distinguish between the coming of the 
Son of Man, by which was meant the establishment of 
the kingdom of Christ or the New Dispensation, and the 
coming of the Lord, which referred to the death of his 
disciples, and the clearer vision that should succeed.* 
We have already expressed our views of certain par- 
ables, such as that of the wedding feast, the tares, the 
talents, the ten virgins, and others of that sort, as ad- 
dressed primarily to the Jews, and warning them of 
the consequences of rejecting their Messiah. 

To his disciples he spoke of his kingdom, but they 
failed to understand him. The great fact of which he 

* Vide my Eschatology, pp. i, S3' 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 221 

spoke was, that it would be distinguished by its rigid 
judgments of character. Membership in the Jewish 
Church was by birth chiefly. The external observance 
of the law of Moses was alone required as the condi- 
tion of such membership to any. The New Dispensa- 
tion was to be spiritual. The law was to be written 
on their hearts (Jer. xxxi. 33 ; Heb. viii. 10). Char- 
acter, not ancestry, was to be the one criterion. 
Hence "judgment/' discrimination between the sheep 
and the goats, was made to appear a prominent feature 
of the Christian dispensation. The Savior himself 
w r as to sit upon his throne, with the human family be- 
fore him, selecting some for his kingdom, and reject- 
ing others. The one ground of decision was treatment 
of him as Messiah (Matt. xxv. 31-46;. His disciples, 
wherever they went, were to do the same solemn 
work. They were to regard themselves as sitting on 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 
And whatever they bound on earth was to be ratified 
in heaven. In all this we see nothing of eternal pun- 
ishment. The evil to be feared was, being " left out." 

And we may repeat that there is no doctrine of 
" The Unpardonable Sin " from which to infer the 
doctrine of eternal punishment. 

12. On the day of Pentecost the Kingdom of Heaven 
was inaugurated. Christ had himself ascended on 
high, and given gifts to men. Henceforth inspired 
Apostles speak for Christ. From them we are to learn 
the laws of the kingdom intrusted to their administra- 
tion. What do they say? Peter tells us (Acts x. 42) 
that Jesus of Nazareth had been authoritatively con- 
stituted Judge of the living and the dead, — the same 



222 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

f miction in both worlds. What he does here, the same 
he does there. Here he brings to bear upon hearts 
the power of his love, and expresses infinite readi- 
ness to forgive the penitent. He avows himself as 
sent of God to be " a Savior of the world," and in this 
work of salvation he separates the sheep from the 
goats. He does the same there, only in greater 
pow T er and efficacy. So that men who are not ac- 
cepted here, are reclaimed and accepted there (i Pet. 
iv. 6). 

Paul tells us (Rom. ii. 5) of men who pervert the 
kindness of God in Christ, and thus treasure up wrath 
in (not against) a (not the) day of wrath, and right- 
eous judging, i. e., this day of the Messiah's adminis- 
tration, when the sins of men who reject his gracious 
government are great. He after calls it " indignation 
and wrath, tribulation and anguish " upon those doing, 
i. e., when doing evil. This must imply the painful- 
ness of a consciousness in sinners that they are under 
the displeasure of God for rejecting his Son, with all 
the sorrows of those who are like the troubled sea, 
whose waters cast up mire and dirt — (the xoluaiv 
of Matt. xxv. 46). " The secrets of men are judged 
(xQlvei) by Jesus Christ (v. 16), and of course for 
the purpose of judgment expressed by the Savior him- 
self when in the flesh, — discriminations between the 
sheep and goats. And it should be remarked that 
such expressions as indignation, anger, wrath, &c, are 
to be interpreted as the style of the day when applied 
to kings, and not in the import of those phrases as 
now used. 

Both Peter and Jude speak of dead men, then angels, 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 223 

as having gone from this world enemies to God, and 
as sent to Tartarus, to await a day of judgment by Jesus 
Christ. All this had been, as the verb is in the per- 
fect tense. What had been the result of the preaching 
of the gospel and the visit of the Savior on his errand 
of mercy to those particular " spirits in prison " we 
are not told. But we are told that a multitude of cap- 
tives (Eph. iv. 8) welcomed him when first he went to 
that world of spirits as the Messiah, and were received 
by him to his kingdom. Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, and all the prophets went and sat down in the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

Paul informs us that when Christ was enthroned as 
Messiah, u all principality, and power, and might, and 
dominion, and every name that is named, not only 
in this world, but in that which is to come " — all 
were placed under his Messianic administration 
(Eph. i. 20-22). And to the Colossians he says, all 
things were made for Christ (itg duro^), and must 
therefore be saved by him as made for that end. It 
should be remembered that the Messianic work was 
salvation. When he triumphs and subdues his ene- 
mies, it is the victory of love. By such conquest he is 
to unite in one all things that are in the invisible and 
visible world, — " by him to reconcile all things to 
himself " (Col. i. 20; Eph. i. 10). Whatever inter- 
pretation the language may receive, as qualified by 
other texts, it does not support the doctrine of eternal 
punishment. And it shows that in the future world 
the Messianic work is performed, and with the result 
of salvation. 

We have seen that, as judged by the tribunal of the 



224 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

Messiah in this world, there were those, and they were 
many, who were rejected as not entitled to membership 
in his kingdom. But we are taught that when Christ 
carried his Messianic work to the world of the dead, 
then, too, was "judgment" (xylene, Heb. ix. 27). 
And that the effect there of his presence and work was 
to run a dividing line between the righteous and the 
wicked. There, as here, " his fan was in his hand." 
The effect was, that there was war in heaven (the in- 
visible world), and sin was defeated and banished. 
Satan was cast out (Rev. xi. 18 ; xii. 7-9 ; Luke x. 18 ; 
John xii. 31 ; xvi. 11). This, we think, was designed 
to represent the state of that world as compared with 
this. Satan was cast out into the earth. We have 
felt his influence here ; but there the power of tempta- 
tion was greatly reduced ; those that failed of salvation 
here were gained to Christ there (1 Pet. iv. 6). In 
that world there was no lust of the flesh, and of the 
eye, and pride of life and wealth. And in that world 
there is no atheism. KWfeel that there is a God, and 
that they are in his hand. They cannot screen them- 
selves behind the flesh and sense. 

And a fact of great significance in this connection 
is, that when the Apostles speak of unconverted men, 
and of Christians as they were before conversion, it is 
not as in danger of dropping, by the stroke of death, 
into a hopeless and eternal hell. The Savior had 
said it was better to enter into life halt or maimed, 
than with a perfect body, to be cast into perpetual fire 
(Matt, xviii. 8), implying, necessarily, that the good 
and the evil referred to were in the present life, and 
therefore not in the form of penalty in a future world. 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 225 

Bo the Apostles represent men as unsaved, strangers to 
the covenant of promise, without God in the world, 
having no hope, wretched and miserable and poor 
and blind and naked, dead in trespasses and sins, 
alienated and enemies in their mind by wicked works. 
They are represented as in a state whose tenden- 
cies are to, and will eventuate in, u destruction," ene- 
mies of the cross of Christ, whose end (rilog, complet- 
ed result) is destruction (anatlela), as elsewhere it is 
said, u Sin, when it is finished (brought to a complet- 
ed result (a.-iOTelFoeivu), bringeth forth death," that 
is, results in ruin, worketh death. And the displeas- 
ure of God towards sin is at the time of the perpetra- 
tion; indignation and wrath upon every soul of man 
doing evil. He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
lasting life ; but he that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth, not will 
come (psvei), on him. u Wrath" (0,7 w), displeasure. 
This word misleads. We are referred to Rev. vi. 16 ; 
u the wrath of the Lamb," as if the love of Christ was 
yet accompanied by wrath, in the modern use of that 
word. The sufferings thus referred to as to come 
upon the Jews, were the same as those which the 
Savior had in view when he beheld the city and wept 
over it. The wrath of Jesus is disapproval, and grief, 
and pity, and tears (Luke xix. 41). So treasuring up 
wrath in (<? *', in, during) a day of wrath, a day of clear 
knowledge of God, and responsibility, which the hea- 
then, just referred to, had so imperfectly, and thus a day 
of God's special displeasure, because a day of the viola- 
tion of known obligation. (Vide Heb. x. 26-31.) And 
so through all the various phases of the general sub- 
15 



2 26 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

ject, why do not the sacred writers bring out the fear- 
ful fact, that at death the crisis is reached, and eternal 
punishment, as threatened penalty, succeeds ? Why do 
they not — what is so common in our day — exhort men 
to " prepare for death"? An appeal not to conscience, 
but to selfishness and fear. 

Such are the representations of the inspired Apostles, 
made from the " twelve thrones " on which they sat 
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

13. It has become customary to find support to the 
doctrine of Eternal Punishment in the Apocalypse. 
We think nothing could be more intensely perversive 
of the Scriptures. The circumstances in the case for- 
bid that this language should have any reference to the 
future destiny of individual men. The prophet is pre- 
dicting the destruction of the heathen persecuting 
power. The Apostle calls it, symbolically, " Babylon " 
— the name by which the old and standing enemy of 
Israel was known. The language refers to the de- 
struction of this fabulous Babylon. A city, of course, 
would imply inhabitants. And its destruction would 
imply their destruction. These were to drink of the 
wine of the wrath of God, and be tormented with fire 
and brimstone (xiv. 11). All this is to teach the ter- 
rible and hopeless destruction of the Roman persecu- 
ting power ; simply that, — more a principle than a 
person or persons. That the language refers to a princi- 
ple that is doomed, and not to persons, is evident from 
the connection. They have, or are having, no rest day 
nor night, worshipping the beast, and if any one is re- 
ceiving the mark. This implies that persecution is 
under the frown of heaven, and that they who prac- 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 227 

ties it will find it a work of suffering ; the smoke of 
their torment ascends perpetually. This is descriptive 
of the state of persecutors at the time. So xix. 3. 
And again they said. Alleluia, and Iter smoke, i. e., of 
the city, the " great whore " was risi7tg up, and would 
continue to rise up forever. The church, from that 
time onward, will be in the ascendant, and persecution 
be henceforth impossible. 

The Apostle uses another symbol. The same object 
he represents as " the great whore." Ten subordinate 
kings are represented as ten horns. These ten horns 
hate the whore, strip her naked, eat her flesh, and 
burn the remainder with fire. Shall this language be 
understood to mean that the inhabitants of Rome were 
to be eaten by cannibals? 

And still another. This power is represented as a 
vast army, under the leadership of the beast and his 
allied kings. These come into conflict with the sacred 
hosts of the Messiah, are defeated, and their bodies 
cast alive into " a lake of fire burning with brimstone." 

In view of this representation the one opinion pos- 
sible to an intelligent exegete is that the destruction, 
the complete and everlasting destruction of the Pagan 
persecuting power, is symbolized, and that in any of 
its phraseology there is or can be any reference to the 
future state of individuals is out of the question. 
That theory of exegesis that can find in it such import, 
would find horses in heaven, and angels, and Jesus him- 
self, riding on horseback there. 

And it should be added that the destruction of the 
Persecuting Power did not involve the destruction of 
literal Rome, or any serious injury. It was simply the 



228 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

fact that Christianity, under the civil leadership of Con- 
stantine, rose into the ascendant. 

These same principles of interpretation we take 
with us into the following chapters. Persecuting 
Rome no longer such, we see a mighty angel coming 
down from heaven, arresting Satan as a persecutor 
(dQuxwv), and locking him up in the abyss, for an in- 
definitely long period, during which the church shall 
flourish. This period dates from the triumph of the 
Cross over the Roman Empire, and is now passing. 
Satan is to be permitted to make yet another attempt 
to defeat the cause, but shall utterly fail, and the devil 
(diuSoloz), shall be u cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
stone," and shall be tormented day and night forever 
and ever. That is, all that is diabolical here comes to 
a complete end — a destruction that cannot be de- 
stroyed. Humanity will have been delivered from its 
bondage. It will have ceased to sin, and have access 
to the tree of life. The account with God for the past 
is now to be settled. Death and Hades are de- 
stroyed, to be no more. And if any one is not found 
written in the book of life he is cast into the lake of 
fire. The representation of this same fact in the epi- 
sode of the New Jerusalem (xxi. 27), is, There shall 
not enter into it anything that deflleth, . . . but 
they who are in the Lamb's book of life. This may 
mean that, while all enter into the city, they are all 
disciples of Christ. Christianity has triumphed over 
them, as it has over persecuting Rome. If this be 
not its meaning, would it imply the end of wicked 
men? 

In all these apocalyptic representations we find 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 229 

not the least support to the doctrine of the eternal 
punishment of individuals. These symbols have, and 
can have, no possible relation to the subject. As well 
might any other of their symbolic representations be 
interpreted literally, and give birth to any and every 
monster dogma. As well might Isa. xxiv. 10 be 
made to teach the endless punishment of the Idu- 
means. 

It is not the design of this closing chapter to express 
any opinion on the fact of eternal punishment. Its 
object is to show that we must have a different advo- 
cacy of it, or the belief in it will fade out of the con- 
victions of thinking men. And it should be under- 
stood that " the people " of the present day are thinking 
men — not in the range of Oriental scholarship, but of 
common sense, far more reliable. The exegesis that 
can find its data for the proof of this doctrine in the 
Old Testament, and the literal resurrection of the body 
in Job, chapter xix* ; that can make Dan. xii. 2, 3 doc- 
trinal rather than prophetic ; that finds " eternity " in 
tibi? ; that makes the parables of the Savior that refer 
to the Jews, and to the end of the dmbi\ or dispen- 
sation then passing, refer to the " end of the 
world ; " that makes a day of judgment in Matt. x. 15, 
xi. 22, 24, the General Judgment ; that makes the bold 
language of symbol in the Apocalypse the language 
of dogmatic inculcation ; that can put a " when " before 
U7iei&i[(j(x(jt (disobedient) in 1 Pet. 3, 20, as a temporal 
connective with ty.^ov^ev (he preached), — this exege- 
sis will not carry conviction to minds that think for 
themselves, and form their own opinions. And if 



23O THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

what I have now said shall have the effect to prompt 
and aid in a more conclusive argument that shall re- 
move the doctrine from this sandy foundation, and 
place the entire subject upon a rock, my object will 
be attained. 

The question to be discussed is not whether legal 
penalty threatened in this world will be inflicted in 
the world to come, for penalty is not an element in a 
moral government. It is not whether the gospel will 
be preached to the dead, and multitudes not reclaimed 
in this life be saved there. Nothing is more distinctly 
written upon the page of inspiration. But it is this : 
Will men, in the future world as in this, in the exer- 
cise of their responsible agency, persist in destroying 
themselves? In this world, where stands the Cross of 
Christ, they turn away from the offers of mercy which 
it makes, and with strange and mysterious despera- 
tion rush on in their course of self-inflicted evils, and 
at length lie down and die in darkness and horror? 
Will they do so in the world of the dead, and do it 
forever? And will Christ, who wept over incorrigi- 
ble sinners here, and in the bitterness of his soul ex- 
claimed, " O, that. thou hadst known in this thy day," 
find the same occasion for grief in the world to come, 
and those eyes that wept over Jerusalem remain " a 
fountain of tears" forever? 



APPENDIX. 



A. (Page 123.) 
RIGHT AND CONSCIENCE. 

THE relation of Ethical philosophy to exegesis and the- 
ology is very obvious. The exer*esis found in this 
volume derives its character, of course, in great degree from 
the ethical theories of its author. There is no subject in so 
dense a cloud, and the elements of which are seen by philos- 
ophers in such indistinctness. Scarce a solitary one is pre- 
sented in well-defined outline. Especially is this true of the 
fundamental principles of the science. 

The writer thinks he will be the better understood in these 
pages if he append his views of Right and Conscience. He 
submits the following : — 

Let it be supposed that in some paradisiacal spot on this 
planet there should be created and placed a Solitary Man, 
with all the constitutional elements of being that belong to 
us, but without the slightest knowledge or surmise of any 
other being in the universe — Creator or creature. That he 
is a man, implies that he has a capacity for social, moral, and 
religious experiences. The first and last must remain un- 
developed, as they have no object. Would the moral func- 
tion remain dormant ? 

He would, by instinct, eat and drink, and by the various 
methods at his command, would promote his happiness by 

231 



232 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

the gratification of his susceptibilities. But he would find, 
by and by, that there were restrictions to be placed upon 
some of these forms of gratification as the condition of his 
highest good. For instance, he would find that he was liable 
to eat to excess, and that the effect would be, at first, physical 
and mental lassitude, and if persisted in, pain and disease, or 
deranged functions, as a part of his condition. But by ex- 
periment he would learn the law of temperance, and thus of 
health. 

He has thus a law, or rule of conduct. And if his obser- 
vations have been correct, it is a right law ; that is, a law the 
observance of which would accomplish the end he seeks, 
which is his own highest happiness. By right, we mean 
adaptation to an end. We say of a watch that its move- 
ments are right when they are adapted to the attainment of 
the end for which the watch was made — keeping the true 
time. And the law of movement, which is observed in such 
use of the watch, is a right law. 

We have thus the primal elements of a moral government, 
an Object, and also a law to regulate the voluntary acts of 
the mind for the attainment of that Object. Let us follow the 
history of that law as it affects the Solitary Man. Under the 
urgency of a keen appetite he may eat too much, and the sad 
effects will come in train. He sees that he has violated his 
own wisely established rule, and regrets it, we will suppose. 
Yet in similar circumstances he does the same thing again. 
Again he reflects upon his conduct. He reasons thus : I 
have my health and happiness in my own hands. When I 
yielded to the urgency of appetite I could have done other- 
wise, and I owed it to myself so to do, or to use an irregular 
preterite of that verb, I ought to have done otherwise, and I 
blame myself that I did not. The thought of having violated 
the law of my well-being gives me pain ; as also the thought 
of doing it in the future. 

Now, then, we have an Object, a law, and a feeling of obli- 
gation to obey that law, and compunction for disobedience. 



APPENDIX. 233 

The man has found that he has within his own bosom a tri- 
bunal to which he is amenable, and which awards to him an 
approval that brings with it joy, or disapproval that is freight- 
ed with pain ; and if the interest affected by the wrong and 
disapproved act be great, the pain becomes anguish, and that 
is intense in proportion to the magnitude of the good that has 
been sacrificed. He has found that the effect of introducing 
to the mouth certain articles of food is pleasurable or pain- 
ful, e. g., bitter or sweet. This is an ultimate fact. He learns 
that he has a susceptibility to this experience under these 
conditions. He calls it taste. His philosophy goes no far- 
ther. So he finds that the thought that he has obeyed or 
disobeyed a law of " right " by the sacrifice of a greater to an 
inferior good, addresses a susceptibility of the soul that, like 
the taste, gives him pleasure or pain. He calls it " con- 
science." Conscience, then, is a susceptibility to pleasure or 
pain, in view of one's right or wrong moral conduct. Con- 
science and moral acts are correlates ; and the effect of the 
latter upon the former is an ultimate fact. The remembrance 
of the pleasure or the pain operates as an incentive or a dis- 
suasive, just as the remembrance of good or evil in any other 
form — the food we relish, the fire that burns. 

We have now seen that our Solitary Man could have an 
ultimate Object, and that the highest amount of happiness : 
that to attain it implies restrictions on present gratification, 
and that the extent of this restraint can be determined by 
experiment, and the practice can thus be regulated by a 
law or rule of conduct in the premises : that from the myste- 
rious power of freedom of the human will, there is a liability 
to violate this law of his well-being. Excited susceptibility, 
as a present experience, and also from its nature as excitant 
disturbing the intellectual and logical processes, may control 
the activities of the present, forgetful of K or ignoring the calm 
estimates of the ultimate good. As it does so or not, the law 
of Right is violated or obeyed. And such obedience or dis- 
obedience, in the review, addresses a susceptibility rich beyond 



234 THE BIB LE REGAINED. 

all others in its awards of good, and terrible in its inflictions. 
He finds within himself, and apart of himself, a tribunal before 
which himself is arraigned, and where verdicts are positive 
and practical, himself being also the executor of his own 
verdicts. 

The following, then, are our definitions : Right, in morals, is 
adaptation to secure the highest good — the greatest amount 
of happiness. Wrong, the opposite, or acts not thus adapted. 
Conscience, is a susceptibility to pleasure or pain, in view of 
our own right 6x wrong free acts. 

Our Solitary Man, then, has formed a moral character. Sin 
or holiness, or both, are a part of his history. He is a law 
to himself, and a judge and an executive to himself. 

Let it now be supposed that our Solitary Man, as on some 
peaceful sunset hour he walks among the floral beauties of his 
abode, suddenly meets one in form essentially like himself, 
though with specific exceptions. They each approach, under 
the promptings of a mutual curiosity. What is it ? asks each 
heart. On acquaintance, they learn that each has experi- 
ences essentially the same as the other — pleasurable and 
painful. Next to curiosity is the operation of that mighty 
and underlying principle, sympathy. If one suffers, the other 
suffers as a consequence, and the good or the ill of each is 
shared by the other. They have thus a common interest. 
So that the union of the two is but the enlargement to each 
of an individual interest. This interest is confided to their 
joint responsibility. And so far forth as the experience of 
each is dependent on the other, the law of sympathy and 
joint interest will require that each should do to the other 
what it would the other should do to it. And individually 
and unitedly the same principle of right would apply as to 
the Solitary Man. Right in each would meet the approval 
alike of the actor and its companion, and wrong the disap- 
proval. Each would owe to itself and its other half to make 
the highest good, or greatest amount of happiness to each 
and both, the ultimate object. 



APPENDIX. 235 

In the case as now supposed, there is opportunity for dis- 
interested benevolence. In the case of the solitary individual 
there was what approximated to it. The individual, when 
alone, practised self-denial in his present self, on principle, 
with reference to his future self. He now practises self- 
denial with reference to another person. The good of that 
other person is the objective motive in what he does. 

We have supposed the newly-discovered stranger to be a 
female. Sexual affinities, in addition to merely sympathetic 
and moral ties, unite the parties. They are now husband and 
wife, with additional responsibilities growing out of this 
relation. By and by the parental relation is sustained, and 
is the medium of sympathy, modified and varied by the char- 
acter of its object as dependent and as their own. 

Let it be supposed that at this time they learn, by some 
means, that there are in their neighborhood other families like 
themselves. They would find the bond of sympathy potent 
to embrace them all. And the welfare of each and all would 
be their joy. They would embrace the interest of each and 
all in their own, and live for it as such. 

And no matter how far their discoveries should reach, or 
how numerous the populations discovered, every individual 
would be a " neighbor," and loved as themselves. 

And next, let it be supposed that in their serious medita- 
tions they hear a voice from their inmost intuitions, affirming 
the being of a God. They are conscious that their nature 
requires the social relations in which they find themselves, 
and that thus their wants are met, and new elements of char- 
acter are developed. But there is another and higher want. 
And a great and glorious Being above them, infinite in his 
love, and wisdom, and power, on whom they can depend in 
safety for tne, to them, unknown future, whose power and wis- 
dom can protect and bless them, frail as they are, yet in the 
midst of mighty forces, whom they can love, and revere, and 
worship — would meet that want. They hear the voice, and 
they believe it. That there is a God, becomes a practical 



236 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

conviction. And this God must be such that he shall be the 
true correlate to their own being. The thought entertained, 
and they learn that wonderful fact, that their heart is suffi- 
ciently capacious to embrace, permanently and forever, that 
great and glorious God. A human heart takes in the bound- 
less, and is not oppressed, but bears on the burden, and finds 
it an unfailing source of good, of a blessedness all above any 
former experience. They sympathize with the great heart 
of the great God, and all his interests, so far as known to them, 
are their interests ; his welfare they seek to promote as their 
own. They love God benevolently, and they love him aes- 
thetically, or in appreciation of the infinite loveliness and 
beauty of the divine character. And so great relatively is 
the amount of his being and the value of his interests, that 
these predicates in themselves and their fellows sink into 
relative nothingness. Their language is, u Whom have we in 
the heavens but Thee, and there is none upon earth that we 
desire in comparison with Thee." God and his interests are 
now the Ultimate Object of their heart and life. 

If we mistake not, we have given exact definitions of the 
terms of moral science. Are they correct ? Will they bear 
examination in the light ? 

I. Of the Bible. We are there taught to love our neighbor 
as ourselves. This supposes that we are constitutionally 
capable of a practical estimate of his interest and welfare as 
of equal importance to us as our own ; or, rather, that they 
are, in the last analysis, our interest and welfare. This 
places ourselves and our fellows on a par. But we are re- 
quired to love God with all the heart, and soul, and mind, and 
strength — placing God in our regards immeasurably above 
ourselves. But in this claim to our love, there is implied 
that the mind, in its normal state, is capable of such a relative 
estimate of the interests of God and ourselves. But this is 
possible only on the principle that the blending element 
among our functions makes our own and the good of God 



APPENDIX. 237 

important to us in proportion to their amount; in other 
words, that God is ours, and we are his. 

We are taught that " God is love," and that in us " love is 
the fulfilling, or sum total, of the law." But the correlate to 
love or benevolence, is happiness or well being. Hence it is 
clear that the highest happiness of all, creatures and Creator, 
is the " end " of the law. This is the Supreme Object, the 
ultimate objective motive. 

It is the teaching of the Scriptures that different men may 
be equally conscientious in different opinions of duty, and 
that each should respect the conscientious convictions of the 
other. This implies that Right in morals is not the verdict 
of a moral sense, as color is of the eye, but that it is the re- 
sult of a logical process, and an inference from premises, in 
which intellectual process there is room for mistake, so that 
men may come into direct conflict in their conscientious prac- 
tice. One man may eat meats offered to idols, while his neigh- 
bor is forbidden by his conscience to do so. Our theory 
makes it the province of the intellect to judge of adaptations 
to the great end. 

II. In the light of facts. The moral history of the human 
race maybe divided into two periods — the inceptive, and 
that of riper years. 

The moral developments of a child are at first so feeble, 
and their qualities so slightly shaded, that we find it difficult 
to make them the subject of a philosophical analysis. We 
have, however, inspired authority for dividing the operations 
of conscience into two classes — those towards God, and those 
towards men. The latter are first in order, and exclusive. 
To the child, the mother is at first its God, the object of its 
supreme regard. It knows no greater power, no higher wis- 
dom, no purer love. Its earliest smiles and first kindling of 
the eyes are in response to the smiles and the loving looks 
of that mother. And we may add that its first fears often 
find there their source. 

The first effort in the direction of strictly moral culture, is 



238 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

in the form of an appeal to the principle of sympathy. If 
passion prompts a blow upon a little brother, the mother 
pities the injured party, and tries to awaken pity in the bosom 
of the offender. " Would you like to have Charlie strike you, 
and hurt you ? " No. " Then you must not strike him." 
And there are elements in the bosom of that child which feel 
the appeal, that recognize the welfare of the sufferer as a part 
of his own. And for the mother to say, in the tone of pity, 
" Poor Charlie," is to touch a chord that vibrates and avails. 
The operation of this susceptibility* is, of course, feeble at 
first, like that of any other function ; but it will, by cultivation 
and use, acquire strength, and shape the character of its 
possessor. 

When, after other months and years, the mother tells her 
child that for him to do certain things will give her pain, 
there is in it the same power. He cannot inflict pain upon 
his mother. A mother's tears are drops of molten lead upon 
the soul of a child. 

With years the sphere of its sympathies extends, and in 
time it will know no limits, save that of the experience in 
others, of good and evil. It will shrink from the infliction of 
pain, it will be blessed in blessing others, and all others. 

In the case of adults, we apply our theory without hesita- 
tion. By it we judge of character. He is the best man who 
intentionally does the most good. He is the best citizen who 
does most, and sacrifices most, for his country. He alone who 
acts on this principle is the true patriot. If any personal 
interest is the objective motive in what he does, we no longer 
respect him. And when we would inspire man in the direc- 
tion of goodness, we speak of the nobleness of forgetting 
self, and living for the good of others. 

When we speak of the highest good of all as the ultimate 
object, we do not, of course, suppose that each specific act is 
viewed in all its tendencies and adaptations, and thus judged 
to be fitted to the great end. We may have acts of a given 
class brought under the control of some specific rule that 



APPENDIX. 239 

we can see to be right. Or, what is more, we may depend 
on the opinion of those more competent than ourselves. 
The child obeys the parent. " Mother knows best," is the 
magic utterance that carries all before it. And on this 
principle we obey God, assuming his benevolence and 
wisdom. 

It is admitted by all that conduct morally right is fitted to 
promote, and does in fact promote, general happiness. Why 
not, then, suppose that rational creatures, knowing this fact, 
should make it their motive and rule of conduct. And why 
call in some other and mysterious principle, when we have 
one perfectly simple and perfectly adequate ? The greatest 
philosophers cannot define or explain the nature of this para- 
site, while the simple and adequate truth is understood by 
the child. 

III. As seen in its adaptation to the wants of the human 
mind. 

Our theory is simple. The great end and object is one 
— the highest blessedness of the great Universe, Creator and 
creatures. That we ought to seek, and of course the means 
to that end we ought to employ. To aid us in deciding what 
such means are, we have the Bible, with its general rules or 
principles, and its specifications without number. And it may 
be remarked that the simplicity of our theory is an argument 
in support of its divinity. What is of God, is found, when 
understood, to be simple. Gravitation, or the law that regu- 
lates the movements of the material universe, as understood 
by Kepler and Newton, is simple. So of the great law of the 
moral universe, it is simple. Right is one and single ; 
adaptation to an end, that is one and single. And it is the 
same in its parts as in its entirety. It -binds the child to its 
mother, the man to the community, and the archangel to the 
universe of God, — as gravity applies to the molecule or the 
planet. 

Our theory is intelligible. The child can understand it. 
All can, with perfect ease, see it in its relations to their 



24O THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

daily practice. They may sometimes misjudge as to the 
best means to the end. But as moral right and wrong are 
predicable only of the motives or intentions, in this none 
need err. 

It is comprehensive. It covers all. It prescribes the en- 
tire voluntary agency, in things great and small, of the moral 
universe. It is the law to God and to all his creatures. 

The facts, out of which our theory is constructed, are, all 
of them, recognized by writers on the subject as having a place 
in this department of mental science, that so important, 
sympathy, excepted.* And even thj^ President Edwards 
seems to recognize, though not giving it a name or a defini- 
tion. He says, " In pure love to others, i. e., love notarising 
from self-love [selfishness], there is a union of the heart with 
others : a kind of enlargement of the mind, whereby it so ex- 
tends itself as to take others into a man's self; and therefore 
it implies a disposition to feel, to desire, and to act as though 
others were one with ourselves." This, of course, is not a 
scientific definition of sympathy. It is rather a descrip- 
tion of the result of sympathy as entitled to recognition in 
the subject of morals, than of the power itself in its place 
in a moral system. I do not recollect that any other writer 
gives it a place as an element in a system of Moral Phi- 
losophy. 

The idea of self-amenableness, and of self-obligation to act 
for one's own best good on the whole, is recognized by Dr. 
Reid. He says, " When he (the man who has failed to do 
this) feels the bad effects of his conduct, he imputes them to 
himself, and would be stung with remorse for his folly. 



* We do not forget that Adam Smith, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, uses 
the word; but he has no definition, and no conception of the thing. Indeed, the 
moral element is wanting in his entire work. He should have called his book 
"A Theory of Natural Sentiment." Reid, his successor in the chair of moral 
philosophy, uses the word, but apparently without the slightest perception of its 
import as so important. 



APPENDIX. 24I 

though he had no account to make to a superior Being. He 
has sinned against himself, and brought upon his own head 
the punishment which his own folly deserved.' 5 And he adds, 
u From this we may see that this rational principle of a re- 
gard to our good upon the whole, gives us the conception of a 
right and a wrong in human conduct." (Works, IV. pp. 
157-158.) He speaks of this principle as "similar to the 
moral principle or conscience." But he adds, " They are dis- 
tinct principles of action, though both lead to the same con- 
duct in life." (p. 158.) From this we see that the recognition 
of the principle was indistinct, and of course had no definite 
place in a theory. This was characteristic of the celebrated 
philosopher. He was a careful observer of the facts of men- 
tal history, but faiied in synthesis. He could not construct 
a well-defined and complete theory from his facts. 

Cousin, however he may fail to preserve his consistency, 
asserts one theory. " At the same time that we do such and 
such an act, it raises in our mind a judgment which declares 
its character, and it is on the back of this judgment that 
our sensibility is moved." "Judgment," of course, is an 
intellectual process, and supposes some standard of judg- 
ment. 

The one great want of all the ethical writers I have con- 
sulted, is an exact conception and definition of Right, 
and of conscience in its relations to Right. But such con- 
ception presupposes an object or end, for the attainment of 
which means right, or adapted, may be employed. If these 
authors could but start with the truism of President Dwight, 
that happiness is the only good, and that virtue is founded in 
utility, or the intended adaptation of means to that end, all 
would be plain and obvious in the sequel. Some of our best 
writers have seemed to see it, but not in perfect distinctness, 
and so as to give it a definition, and thus place it in definite 
relations of practical availability. Bishop Butler is of this 
number. It was a subject of which he thought, but could not 
then " stop to inquire how far, and in what sense, virtue is re- 
16 



242 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

solvable into benevolence." Jonathan Edwards says, " True 
virtue most essentially consists in benevolence to being in 
general" And he defines virtue as " real holiness" (Vol. III. 
pp. 94, 109.) 

To the above may be added the names of Hopkins, Taylor, 
and others. And if the shades of these men will pardon it, 
I will add the name of David Hume. Only give Hume a 
God infinite and glorious, yet bound to man, and man to him, 
by the tie of sympathy, and whose great interests of his great 
heart are to be taken into account in the utilities of our 
theory, and his ethical philosopny would have been in ad- 
vance of his day — not to say of the present day. 

Those who oppose the "benevolence theory," do it from a 
mistaken idea of the nature of benevolence. Some suppose it 
cannot include God. This is the mistake of Dr. Bellamy. 
The theory which he opposes under this name, is that of such 
men as the infidels Hume and Godwin, and as Bishops Low and 
Paley. But this should be called the selfish, not the utili- 
tarian theory. Utility is as really predicable of things in their 
relations to God as to his creatures. 

Others make no distinction between the objective and the 
subjective motive. This was the mistake also of those whom 
they oppose, as Paley, and before him, Godwin. Assuming — 
what is true — that in all instances of volition the happiness of 
the agent must be the subjective motive, they drive on through 
the entire sphere of motives of both classes, and come out 
— at least some of them do, Godwin for example, and he is 
more consistent than Paley — with the result that self-de- 
nial can in no case be right ; also, that civil government, and 
the enforcement of the will of another, or others, upon us, in 
limiting our freedom and preventing our personal preferences, 
is wrong ; and that, in extreme cases, lying is right. 

Their opposers, startled by this result of their reasoning, 
and failing to escape their inferences by correcting their mis- 
take in blending the two classes of motives, reject the be- 
nevolence theory which they so erroneously advocate. But 
they are fighting a man of straw. 



APPENDIX. 243 

Dr. Hickok urges a singular objection to the "benevolence 
theory." He considers it simply as an instinct, and practised 
for the gratification it affords the actor. Dr. Squier, in his 
" Problem Solved," is in the same predicament, and of course 
did not effect a solution. We are to act benevolently, on the 
same principle that we eat the sweet, or look upon the beauti- 
ful, with no motive beyond the gratification it affords. This 
is benevolence to ourselves, not to others. 

Drs. H. and S. claim that there is a good ulterior to happi- 
ness. " What is it good for ? " " Does the fruition of it add 
to our happiness, or deprivation subtract ? " If the word 
" happiness " is objected to, then we ask, Would the fruition 
of the good increase to us the value of our being, or the de- 
privation diminish ? 

Dr. Squier says, " The * greatest good' in intelligent per- 
sonality is rectitude of spirit, a personal spiritual excel- 
lency." " This is the ultimate end in intelligent beings and in 
moral government." " This end is in complete and perfect 
rectitude, seen in the ground of the personal spirit." (p. 76.) If 
I understand this language, by " rectitude of spirit " is meant, 
not the subjective elements of constitutional character, but 
moral excellence, or holiness. This is the tcltimate end — to 
be holy. This is to be their objective motive, the " ultimate 
end." I am then to make it the object of life, — not to do 
good, and to do it in the widest sphere possible, — but to be 
good i7iyself to live for myself and to make myself good. 
Besides, moral quality is not, in the language of philosophy, 
predicable of the " personality," but of its acts as right or 
wrong. Holiness is not a property of things, but consists in 
the right voluntary act of an agent. I am, then, in my volun- 
tary acts, to have reference solely to their quality (judged by 
what standard?) — this, the ultimate, and not any good to 
others — a sheer impossibility. It is like an attempt to lift 
one's self by pulling at his boot-straps. Besides, is this the 
disinterestedness of Christian character ? Is this living in 
sympathy with Christ, and to save a dying world ? Alas, 



244 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

we have already far too much, in our churches, of that 
kind of people that directs attention to itself, and to the 
attainment of holiness directly, instead of living, and pray- 
ing for others, forgetful of self — yet really securing by indi- 
rection, and without seeking it, their own holiness, or "recti- 
tude of spirit." 

President McCosh rejects the theory that Benevolence 
is the supreme and ultimate principle in virtue or holiness, 
because inconsistent with justice. But he speaks of benevo- 
lence as if it were simple and unreasoning well-wishing, as a 
mere impulse. His is not the benevolence of the Scriptures 
(ay&Tiij), or of a correct philosophy. It leaves out of account 
the great and fundamental principle of sy7?ipathy, by which 
the subjects of it, fellow-creatures and God, are made, in the 
language of Christ, " one," and with a common interest. Be- 
nevolence — not the instinctive feeling, but that feeling 
guided by reason and will, seeks the good of this "one," and 
employs appropriate means. And, as the man supremely self- 
ish practises his self-love as truly in the amputation of a 
limb as in the gratification of his appetite at a sumptuous 
dinner, so benevolence to the great "unit " may apply the 
knife as the condition of the greatest ultimate good. 

In civil government,y//j , //^(from7V/j', law), in the executive, 
is administering the law impartially, uninfluenced by personal 
interests or undue pity for the guilty. It assumes law (Jus), 
and that it is right, and to be obeyed. In the legislator, it is 
the enacting such laws as are fitted in the highest degree to 
promote the welfare of the community. This is the ultimate 
— the welfare of the whole people considered as a unit. 
Such laws are right laws, and such executive administration 
is right administration. Right, is adaptation to an end. In 
morals, that end is the highest happiness of all. Justice\$> obe- 
dience to Right. It may give reward ; it may inflict penalty. 

These same principles apply to the great government of 
God. God is love, or benevolence. The justice of God is 
evinced in executing perfectly the principle of love. Love is 
primal ; justice a subordinate. 



APPENDIX. 245 

Dr. McCosh has discussed the question of Right and Con- 
science at length. If we understand him, his theory is this : 
Man is the subject of divine moral government, and under 
obligations to obey the moral law. That moral law is 
" Right." But what Right is, the human mind cannot know ; 
as also, and consequently, what is the moral law. Man is, and 
cannot but be, ignorant of that law or rule of voluntary con- 
duct which he is bound to obey. To relieve him in part from 
this difficulty, there is an intermediate something — a tertium 
quid — between him and the law, called conscience, whose 
function is not to reveal to man the law, but to inform him 
that certain particular things, at the time under consideration, 
are required or forbidden by the law. This revelation comes 
with authority. This " intermediate " is a part of the man. 
Yet to it belong most or all of the attributes of a distinct per- 
sonality — the intellectual, the emotional, and the voluntary. 
It "commands," " demands," "judges," "declares," "feels," 
and is " imperative." This mysterious something, of the 
man, and yet separate from the man, and with absolute au- 
thority over him, does not attempt to justify its decisions to 
the reason, or to any other function of the mind. It "-giveth 
not account of any of its matters." Its proceedings are all on 
the ipse dixit principle. Man, like a true Catholic, must obey 
in ignorance. And he must not only accept and obey the 
mysterious verdict of this mysterious entity, but he must be- 
lieve that the verdict is from God. And to make the case 
yet stronger, and the claim to obedience the more difficult of 
acceptance, it is admitted that this mysterious functionary 
may be deceived, and by the very mind that it authoritatively 
commands, and as a consequence may command — a com- 
mand backed by the authority of God — what shall, in fact, 
defeat the interests sought by the moral law. 

The philosophy of this Duality is essentially the same as 
that of the Trinity. The "persons " in the Godhead, while 
one in essence, have yet distinct consciousnesses. So with 
conscience and the man. Which of these is the first "per- 



246 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

son," I cannot infer. Conscience, however, seems to be au- 
thoritative, and as, therefore, entitled to supremacy. The 
trinity of God I cannot accept, and for reasons given in this 
volume. So, and for essentially the same reasons, I cannot 
accept the duality of man. 

This theory implies, certainly, that there is some law or 
principle of action with reference to which the acts of man 
are tried. If it is said this is so, and conscience sees it, and 
judges accordingly, but the man in the aggregate sees it not, 
then the man can be guilty of but one sin — disobeying 
conscience. But if conscience brings the life to a standard, 
and tries it by that, and " judges," it is not a "sense ; " judg- 
ment is the work of the intellect, and supposes some law that 
has been violated. Besides, wrong acts are infinitely diversi- 
fied, and, in their kind, in the widest extremes of dissimilarity. 
Now, are there ten thousand rights and wrongs revealed by 
this "sense" ? or is Right and Wrong each a unit ? If the 
latter, then is the judgment of what is right or wrong the 
work of the intellect and not of a sense. If the former, then 
there are kinds of right and wrong that need to be designated. 
We indicate the reports of the sense of seeing by such ad- 
jectives as black, blue, yellow, &c. Right and Wrong should 
have their appropriate adjectives. 

Is this the gospel of Jesus Christ ? Cannot man know what 
is the real import of the moral law ? Can he not know the ob- 
ject for which he is to live, and the means or rules of pro- 
ceeding, or law of conduct by which that object is to be at- 
tained ? All the law is fulfilled in one word, " Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself." 

No man can read " The Divine Government " without a 
profound respect for its venerable author. But when he at- 
tempts to present a system of Ethical Philosophy, and at the 
outset declares that the fundamental principle Right, is in- 
capable of definition or of conception by the human intellect, 
it is as if he should give us a treatise on Geometry, after say- 
ing the same of a straight line, a circle ; or an angle. 



APPENDIX. 247 

We have room only to allude to that incomparable treatise 
of President Hopkins, " The Law of Love." All other 
volumes on the subject of Moral Science, while they may 
have prepared the way for this, are of little value in compari- 
son with it. As we read it, we remember we exclaimed, The 
Millennium is coming ! This is the " beginning of the end " 
of the hitherto endless mazes that have surrounded moral 
science. He distinctly defines the supreme and ultimate Ob- 
ject from which voluntary acts derive their quality. It is the 
highest happiness of God and creatures. But when we come 
to the moral — to the question of Right and Conscience, either 
the analysis is imperfect, or our perceptions are at fault. 
It is, he says, the province of "Moral Reason" to act here. 
This gives and enforces the idea of Right and obligation. 
Moral Reason is a term that to us has no defi?iite significance. 
It seems to ignore the distinction between the intellect and 
the " sensitivity," and to make the two unite in a peculiar 
kind of voluntary action, without any attempt at a further 
analysis. The result is " obligation." Right and Conscience 
seem to have no place in this theory. 

On our philosophy of mind ideas belong to the intellect ; 
and this is as true in the department of morals as in the 
sphere of the mathematics. There is, indeed, feeling produced 
by certain ideas in morals. So is there feeling connected with 
the idea of the beautiful or the deformed. Should we, then, 
have the ^Esthetic Reason ? and on the same principle Social 
Reason, Religious Reason, and others indefinitely, desig- 
nated from the subjects to which the ideas belong ? 

To the eye of our venerable author " obligation " seems 
shrouded in mystery. From the view we have taken of con- 
science, we can see how it prompts or dissuades. If I have 
eaten some pleasant fruit, the sight or the thought of that 
same fruit, by reminding me of the gratification I found in 
eating it before, awakens the desire to renew the same. 
Or, if I had eaten that which, while pleasant to the taste, was 
followed by severe pain, the thought of that pain dissuades 



248 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

me from again indulging my taste. So the operation of con- 
science, prompting or dissuading, may be resolved into the 
simple and necessary desire for gratification, or dread of pain. 
The good or evil from conscience is, of course, peculiar, but 
it is good to be desired and sought, or evil to be feared and 
shunned. And I owe it to myself thus to seek and thus to 
shun. But " myself" includes my family, my country, the 
world, the universe. 

Just as these sheets are going to press, Professor Peabody's 
Manual of Moral Philosophy comes to hand. We find the 
same defect as in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiment, 
in which the moral is not distinguished from the natural. 
The Professor defines I'ight as fitness j and puts into the 
same category as right, forms and relations of matter, also 
volitions. Right is, indeed, predicable of all these ; but moral 
rectitude only of volitions — the free acts of moral agents. 
And these are morally right only when their ultimate object 
is love's correlate — the happiness of others, and all others. 
The fitness of the means to accomplish this end has no moral 
quality. Hence the distinction which the Professor makes 
between absolute and relative right, does not belong to the 
moral. The purpose is right or wrong absolutely, and in its 
essential nature. It is benevolent or it is selfish. The means 
to this end may be only relatively right, or even absolutely 
wrong, from the nature of things, and the ignorance of the 
agent of their qualities and adaptations. But the intention, 
with reference to the ultimate object, alone has a moral char- 
acter. That object is sought, or it is not. 

Conscience is defined to be "a means, not a source, of 
knowledge. It is analogous to sight and hearing. It is the 
power of perceiving fitness and unfitness," and, as we under- 
stand it, in the large sense in which these terms have been 
previously used. And again : " Conscience is a judicial 
faculty." " It judges according to law and evidence." Now we 
think what is here attributed to conscience is, if anything can 



APPENDIX. 



249 



be, a purely intellectual process. It is an opinion formed in view 
of the nature of the facts in the case, as to the " fitness " or 
otherwise of a means to an end. " Fitness " implies a means 
and an end, and is predicable of the former with reference to 
the latter. And this must be a matter of sense-perception, 
or of logical inference. It is a verdict of either sense or of 
the reason, and has, and can have, no moral quality. Con- 
science takes cognizance alone of what is moral. It approves 
of, or is gratified by, what is morally right — not by the ab- 
stract fitness in this case, but by that fitness to an end — the 
object. There may be a fit means to accomplish villany. 
The free and responsible acts of man are not relatively sin- 
ful or relatively holy. They are absolutely sinful or abso- 
lutely holy. There may be degrees of intensity in the sin or 
the holiness, but no admixture. The object presented to the 
choices of the mind is simple and not compound, and the 
choices must be equally uncompounded and absolute. 

The Professor says, u Duty has fitness for its only aim and 
end." Not so. Duty has its aim and end in that, fitness to 
which we predicate of the means for its attainment. And 
again : " The character of an action depends on the intention 
of the agent." Is the "intention" an act? Is "I mean" 
an act? 



250 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



B. (Page 198.) 

PENALTY NOT AN ELEMENT IN THE MORAL 
GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 

GOVERNMENT implies legislation, law, and authorita- 
tive administration. In a just government the law is 
virtually a prescription, and directs the methods in which the 
highest good of all concerned can be most effectively pro- 
moted. 

Governments are civil or moral. Civil government is an 
organization, with laws and penalties administered by physical 
force. The object of its penalties is not a moral result in the 
sufferer. We do not hang men to reform them. Penalty is evil 
inflicted upon the violator of civil law as a dissuasive to 
others. It has no regard to the good of the individual suf- 
ferer.* Hence it has no subduing and reclaiming power 
upon the moral character. As Edmund Burke says, " The 
infliction of penalty has no tendency to reform the guilty." 
As threatened, it appeals solely to A "ear and self-love, and as 
suffered, begets no feeling of obligation or sentiment of grati- 
tude. 

Civil government has itself no moral character. The 
actors in it are, of course, moral agents, and in what they do 
should be governed by moral principle. So should he who 
constructs or operates a machine. But the machine and its 
work have no moral character. 

* Daniel Webster, in his argument at the trial of Knapp. Speeches. Vol. I 
PP- 455, 456. 



APPENDIX, 251 

Moral government, as its name implies, addresses the 
moral elements of its subjects. Its laws are supposed to be 
right, that is, adapted to promote the highest good of the 
individual, and as is implied in that of others, and all 
others. It addresses man as rational, and questions of duty 
are submitted first to his judgment, and through that to the 
conscience, and are thus ethical questions of right and 
wrong. 

Obedience to the law of right has its results of good to the 
actor. First, the direct effect upon the susceptibility ad- 
dressed — the conscience ; also the pleasing consciousness of 
having done good to others. Next, the pleasing conscious- 
ness of having the good opinion of others, our fellow-men, 
and most of all our Heavenly Father. 

Disobedience to the law of right has its results of evil, and 
from the same sources whence come the good, viz., con- 
science, men, God. Each and all disapprove, and such dis- 
approval is a barbed and poisoned arrow in the soul of the 
evil-doer. And each of these forms of good and of evil, as 
the results of right or wrong agency, are certain of perpetu- 
ation and of increase. The good cr evil of the original act 
will be remembered, and in every instance with undiminished 
power for joy or w r oe. And then these acts, as right or 
wrong, will be inceptive to a train of wide-spreading and 
varied results, opening in proportion to their increase a wider 
and deeper fountain of happiness or suffering to the actor. 

Such being the effect upon the individual of right or wrong 
doing, the effect upon a community of such individuals is 
obvious. Suppose them all good. Each is a source of the 
water of life flowing out, and as it goes — like the waters in 
the vision of the prophet — becoming deeper and wider. They 
all have a common destiny, and as they flow together, create 
an ocean of life and love, — a heaven. But suppose them all 
evil. Each is a fountain of the bitter waters of death. These, 
too, flow together, and create a " lake of fire and brimstone," 
— a hell. Good and evil men together may constitute a commu- 



252 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

nity. The result will be a mixed condition. Each modify- 
ing, and in part neutralizing, the tendencies of the other. 
Such is earth. 

The nature and design of the evils of which we speak must 
be carefully considered. If I place my hand upon a hot iron 
I am instantly in pain, and withdraw the suffering member. 
Had I not been thus admonished of the disorganizing process 
by the pain I suffered, I might not have observed that process 
till the hand was injured past recovery. If I am practising 
excess in any gratification, as in food or drink, I am ad- 
monished by the uneasiness, or the pain I feel as the effect, 
to desist, and return to temperance. If I violate any of the 
proprieties of society, and lose its respect, I suffer, and am 
admonished to correct the evil. If I do wrong morally, con- 
science is wounded, and I am admonished to repent and re- 
form. And so in every instance of the violation of Nature's 
laws, physical, mental, social, or religious. The God of our 
being has kindly incorporated into our constitution suscepti- 
bilities to pain that admonish and urge correction and refor- 
mation. The animal functions, deranged beyond a certain 
limit, will result in organic derangement, and overcome the 
recuperative tendencies. Not so with the moral. Whatever 
may be their present state, repentance and reformation will 
become a panacea, to relieve and restore the patient. There 
will, of course, be regrets for the wrong done to God and to 
man. But conscience ceases to employ its terrible power for 
evil, and not only so, it administers approval, and peace, and 
joy. And, out of ourselves, every benevolent heart accepts 
the reformation as the basis of atonement, and sympathizes 
even with the penitent in his sorrow for the wrong of the past. 
And, most of all, our Heavenly Father forgives and loves. 

These laws of our being, thus the conditions of our weal or 
woe, will go with us to the future world. The body will have 
been left behind, but the mind will suffer or enjoy there as 
here its sufferings and joys from the same sources, and, of 
course, with the same tendencies. 



APPENDIX. 253 

These evils are not penalty. Penalty, as we have said, is 
evil inflicted in disregard of the welfare of the transgressor, 
and for the admonition of others. And it is inflicted from 
without, and by other than our own agency, and for the sake 
of the suffering to the culprit. It is to make him, by his suf- 
ferings, an example and a warning. But the evils of which we 
have spoken have a benevolent design for the good of the 
sufferer. 

And as the distinction here made between penalty and 
other suffering as normal, is of the utmost importance in its 
bearing upon our estimates of the character of God and his 
government of the world, it may be well for us to consider 
suffering in general in its relations to the same distinction. 
Suffering has a prominent place and a most important func- 
tion in the benevolent administration of God over men. And 
the necessity for it is not all to be found in their sin. 

As illustrating the mission of suffering, it may be said, — 

1. Suffering is a necessity in the development of moral 
character. There could be no right and wrong if there were 
not both good and evil. Benevolence seeks the good of others. 
And right is adaptation in its purposes and means to the at- 
tainment of that end. Not to seek that end, or what is essen- 
tially the same thing, to seek some other and conflicting inter- 
est, is wrong. If there were not a good and an evil in view 
of the mind in its activities, neither holiness nor sin could 
be predicated of the same. 

2. Suffering is the condition of the highest style of char- 
acter. Difficulties in the way of physical effort, if overcome, 
invigorate the muscles employed. Strength of intellect is 
acquired by difficulties, in its department, overcome. So in 
the moral department. He who has resisted the strongest 
motives in opposition to his conscience, has, in amount, the 
greatest, and in kind, the purest moral character. 

3. Pain and danger are sometimes courted, as furnishing an 
opportunity to evince one's self. The military chieftan who 
would win laurels from his country, is happy to find himself 



254 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

where leaden deaths are flying thick around him. Fiction 
always makes the lover act on this principle. The Chris- 
tian knows the power of this motive. It gratifies him to act 
out his love to Christ at great expense. And he loves to 
meet his Savior's smile as he does so. " We glory in tribu- 
lation." And then he loves to have the opportunity to give 
emphasis to the expression of his love to Him whom he 
would commend to the love of others. He who suffers most 
to bless others, has the richest reward in his own bosom in 
the stronger exercise of benevolence. And all approve, and 
love, and admire this in his character. The great and promi- 
nent fact in the life of Christ, as the Savior of the world, was 
suffering in the exercise of his benevolence. We love this, 
we admire it, we trust it, and we think it our highest glory 
to be in this imitators of Christ Jesus. 

4. Suffering is the condition of the highest enjoyment of 
good. Whatever may be the ability of the Infinite Mind, 
minds of limited capacity like ours estimate most things 
relatively, as, for instance, distance, weight, heat, cold. So 
of the results of excited susceptibility of every kind. This 
kind of fruit is better than the other; one friend is a more 
pleasing companion than some other ; my condition to-day is 
better than it was six months ago. And when positive pain 
is in one of the scales, the contrast is greater and the impres- 
sion deeper. This contrast of the good with the evil, or the 
less good, aids to a higher appreciation and a richer fruition. 
How intensely does the slave enjoy his freedom ; the invalid 
his returning strength ; the poor man, wealth ; a Selkirk, the 
society of friends. 

Thus we see the various functions of suffering. Upon it 
is conditioned the fact of moral character, also the highest 
enjoyment of good. It is educational ; it is admonitory, and 
thus protective ; and when man has sinned, it is disciplinary 
and reformative. In all these forms of suffering its adapta- 
tions are to the good of the sufferer, and addresses its import 
and its tendencies to him as rational and morally responsible. 



APPENDIX. 255 

It seeks to make him holy and happy. Penalty does not be- 
long to this category. Jt stands alone. It does not address 
the conscience, but solely the susceptibility to suffering. 

Penalty, then, cannot be an element in the moral govern- 
ment of God. And for the reason that it does not address 
the moral faculties in the sufferer or in others. Its appeal is 
directly and only to fear as threatened or as witnessed, and 
in no sort to conscience. 

It cannot be of salutary tendency as threatened and in this 
world. Fear of evil prompts only to the effort of selfishness 
to escape evil. If any efforts in die religious direction are made 
under its promptings, their object is to keep out of hell. We 
have, alas, in our churches far too many whose lives show 
that they are religious, on the same principle that the avari- 
cious man is industrious. Their religion, so called, is pure 
selfishness. They have no sympathy with Christ. Such re- 
ligious character is the legitimate offspring of fear. And we 
ask, reverently, if the effect of preaching eternal suffering, as 
penalty in a moral government, is not something other than 
negative and non-saving ? 

What benevolent end can be accomplished by its infliction in 
the future world ? It is not, from its nature and design as 
penalty, to reclaim the sufferer. It is not to dissuade fellow- 
sufferers in hell from sinning. Their welfare is ignored, and 
their recovery out of the question. Does heaven need the 
influence of their woe ? The heavenly hosts are safe in love, 
we suppose, without this everlasting appeal to their fears. 
Does God require it on his own account ? Is his wrath per- 
sonally so great against sinners, that it must find eternal ex- 
pression in their anguish in the lake of fire ? Certainly not, 
for God is t .ove, and this would imply revenge. Does he 
hate sin, and wish, in the most emphatic manner, to impress 
that fact upon the universe? It would seem to us that the 
more impressive utterance of that sentiment would be in an- 
nihilating it, and thus putting it out of his sight. 

We turn away, then, from the idea of penalty as an element 



256 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

in the moral government of God. It can have no place in 
this world as threatened, or in the world to come as inflicted. 

But we are told there is suffering in the world to come. 
Certainly. Nothing is plainer from the Scriptures. But what 
is the nature of that suffering ? If it is not inflicted as pun- 
ishment for some governmental or other reasons, then it must 
come by some law of our constitution. The only and obvious 
fact is, that it is the admonitory, and dissuasive, and reforma- 
tory sufferings that are from the first, and in this world the effect 
of sin. These sufferings here increase with years, and espe- 
cially do they seem, as eternity draws near, to develop them- 
selves in greater intensity, as on the death-bed or the gal- 
lows. This is the fire that burns the soul, living, dying, and 
forever. And we can conceive of no hotter flames that can 
be kindled from any other material. 

On this theory, the sinner destroys himself. Those very 
elements of his being that were implanted there by his 
Creator as the necessary condition of his safety and highest 
attainments in character and happiness, he has perverted and 
disregarded, and now he is eating the fruit of his own doings. 
No arrangements are found in his constitution for penal in- 
flictions, but only for warnings and dissuasives. 

In keeping with this theory, are such texts as the follow- 
ing : Gen. ii. 17. " In the day thou eatest thereof ye will kill 
yourselves with death " (Septuagint, middle voice). So in the 
great correlative announcement of the New Testament Luke 
xix. 10. " The Son of man is come to seek and to save that 
which had destroyed itself" (to bnolwlog). And in the illus- 
trative parable of the prodigal son. Luke xv. 24. " This my 
son . . . had destroyed himself (dTioAajAwg), and is regained." 
Luke xiii. 5. " Except ye repent, you will destroy your- 
selves." (Vide John iii. 16; x. 28; xvii. 12; Rom. ii. 12; 
1 Cor. viii. 11 ; 2 Pet. iii. 9.) So John xxxi. 18. " He that be- 
lieveth not, has already (i. e., by this his own act) condemned 
himself." John viii. 24. " If you believe not that I am he, 
ye will cause your own death in your sins." 



APPENDIX. 257 

We are aware that the middle voice may have its reflexive 
force through some intermediate agency or cause,* as when, 
in civil government, a law is violated, whose penalty is death. 
Indeed, no suicidal act would destroy life, but for the interme- 
diate process of nature. But in Gen. ii. 17, there could be 
no reference to penalty, as the divine government at first was 
purely moral ; and the language is simply predictive of the 
natural consequences of violating the law. So of the use of 
this same verb, in the New Testament, under the purely 
moral administration of the Messiah. So of ^do), Rom. viii. 1 3. 

From the nature of the sufferings of the wicked in the 
future world their design must be reformatory. And the 
Heavenly Father, who loved, and warned, and invited sinners 
in this world, will love, and pity, and invite them in that. 
However it may be disregarded, there will be written upon 
the w r alls of their sad abode, " Behold the Lamb of God, who 
taketh away the sins of the world.'' This is true, in this world, 
of " the sinner a hundred years old." It will be so in the 
w r orld to come. 

It by no means follows that sin will not be eternal, and if 
it is, the sufferings of these sinners will be eternal. They 
live in this world under the same conditions, but do not 
repent. 

It follows that the doctrine of a commercial Atonement, 
that has been "forever'* the bone of contention among the 
schoolmen and modern theologians, vanishes into thin air. 
There is no penalty, by the non-infliction of which, upon the 
transgressor, the law will lose its authority. The divine gov- 
ernment, therefore, needs no mysterious equivalent, and man 
no Savior who must suffer the penalty of his sins. 

Also, that the plain and obvious doctrine everywhere upon 
the whole face of the Bible, that repentance is the condition 



♦Crosby's Greek Grammar, § 559, d. " Caiisative ; so that the middle de- 
notes what a person procures to be done for himself." Vide, also, Kuhner's 
Greek Grammar, § 250, b, Rem. 2. Whitney's Greek Grammar, § 6S9, b. 

17 



258 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

of forgiveness and life, stands in unembarrassed precious- 
ness for the acceptance of our hearts. Jesus is seen to have 
come to " save his people from their sins," rather than from 
the penalty of their sins. 

And again, that God is and can be seen to be honest in 
all he has avowed of his love and of his fatherhood. " Our 
Father who art in heaven." 



APPENDIX. 259 



O. (Page 164.) 
1 PET. III. 18-21. 

WE have read with surprise the article of Professor Bart- 
lett, of Chicago, in the New Englander, October, 1872, 
on this text. In the first place, he begins and proceeds through- 
out on the assumption of a gross theological error. We have 
had great confidence in the olfactories of the Professor as 
quick to scent " heresy," and were not expecting it from his 
pen. He puts himself by the side of certain modern Apolli- 
narians. By nvsvfiaii,, he understands the divine in Christ, — 
the same as "the spirit of Christ in the prophets." In v. 18, 
aagxl and nvev^iaTi have the same grammatical relations. But 
aagxl represents Christ while in the flesh ; then must nve. vaan 
represent him — the man — as he was after death. This is 
the use of the terms in iv. 6. On Professor B.'s theory, all 
that is left of Christ, then, after the death of the body, is the 
Logos, or divine element in Christ. And we shall consequent- 
ly all be Unitarians in heaven. There will be no divine Mes- 
siah there. By this assumption the Professor would avoid the 
pressure of ev cu as referring to Christ after death as still en- 
gaged in the work of saving men. But this is not the func- 
tion of ev co. It refers not to nvevfiai^ but to the facts stated 
in the preceding context, that Christ had lived and died for us, 
and also that he was now in his pneumatic state. It might 
be rendered by " hence "or "in consequence of which." Hav- 
ing fulfilled his mission to this world as Messiah, the elements 
of the redemptive work upon the race were now realized, and 
ready for their use upon both " the quick and the dead." 
And to illustrate the exceeding riches of the grace that he 



260 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

had brought to the fallen race, he went to those degraded men, 
the antediluvians, who had been most prominent as sufferers 
under a frowning providence in this world. He went and 
preached the gospel to those who had perished by the flood. 

The grammatical discussion we are unable to appreciate. 
We are the less humiliated, however, as we find ourselves in 
respectable company. " The grammarians," the Professor 
tells us, " have mostly failed to recognize the central princi- 
ple of the case. Hadley," the prince of grammarians, "ap- 
proaches it.'' 

The aorist participle has, of course, a prominent place in 
the discussion. The highest authorities are quoted on defi- 
nitions of the import and use of the aorist, creating thus a 
legitimate presumption that we are to be taken on under the 
sanction of such great names as Crosby, Godwin, Hadley. 
But their definitions quoted, they are left behind, as are also 
their definitions. Under the sole leadership of Professor Bart- 
lett, then, we proceed to consider the aorist participle. First, 
in connection with the subject of the verb. Several instances 
are quoted from the second chapter of Matthew, which are 
rendered in our English version by " when," as " when 
Herod, the king, had heard," " when he had gathered," &c. 
So of the object of the verb, in Matthew ix. 27, 28, " when 
Jesus departed (naQ&yorTi), and " when he was come into 
the house (el&ovTc). But naq&yovTi is a present, and not, as 
stated by the Professor, an aorist participle, and of course ren- 
dered by " when." In the other instance, " The blind men went 
in to him, he having, or after he had gone into the house." 
Acts xxii. 17. "When I was come again to Jerusalem," 
{hyhveio ds /uol vnoaigeipavTi). Literally, "it happened to me, 
having returned to Jerusalem " — after the eventful journey to 
Damascus, perhaps including the residence in Arabia, " and 
as I was engaged in prayer in the temple, that I was in a 
trance." We have here, first, his return to the holy city after 
long absence ; and next, that as on some occasion, it may be 
days or weeks afterwards, while praying in the temple, he 



APPENDIX. 26l 

was favored with a vision. Was this vision "when " he re- 
turned ? Again, Acts xv. 25: " It seemed good to us 
when assembled," &c. The record is this, " It seemed 
good to us, having become unanimous, to send," &c. So far 
from being " when " assembled, it was after they were as- 
sembled, and after " there had been much disputing," and 
they had finally become unanimous. And it was this last 
fact that rendered it expedient to send a delegation to the 
Gentiles. After and because we were unanimous. Again, 
we are referred to present participles rendered by " while," 
"as," " when," which is all very well, but what has that to do 
with the aorist participle — unless it be to obfuscate the 
superficial ? 

Every Greek scholar knows that the aorist participle is not 
significant of time when, except that it is in the past, or had 
its commencement in the past indefinitelv. If the acts ex- 
pressed severally by the aorist participle and its verb were 
in close historic connection, it must be learned in some other 
way, and not from the proper force of the aorist. We toler- 
ate, not adduce as exegetically authoritative " when," in such 
cases as in Matt, ii., in accommodation to the idiom of the 
English language, and because it leads to no very serious 
error. In other cases it is not so innocuous — in 1 Pet. iii. 
20 ; Heb. v. 9, for instance. In Acts xvii. 30 the Apostle 
tells us that God having overlooked (vtceoiS&v) the time of 
this ignorance, now commands all men to repent. This little 
word {67TS Qidfhp) embraces the history of four thousand years 
— a very long "when." " Noah, having been warned," one 
hundred and twenty years afterwards built the ark. Paul 
tells the Colossians (ii. 13, 14) that Christ, having forgiven 
them, and having blotted out the handwriting of ordinances 
that was in their way, nailing it to the cross, had quickened 
them to life. But this nailing to the cross was some twenty 
years before they were converted. 

It is the present participle, as I need not say, that is used 
to indicate the "time when " of the verb, e. g., Heb. ii. 17. 



262 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

By faith, Abraham, being tried, i. e., when tried, offered up, as 
if a part of himself, Isaac, and he who had previously (aorist) 
received, as to be appropriated by himself, the promises, to 
whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be reckoned — 
was offering up his only begotten." He was offering " when " 
he was being tried. Acts i. 4 : Jesus, being assembled with 
the disciples, instructed. Acts vii. 2 : God appeared to 
Abraham, being or " when " in Mesopotamia. So Luke xxi. 
I; Eph. ii. 1 ; 1 Pet. i. II, iii. 5 ; John i. 52. 

We come, then, to the conclusion, that " when," as a trans- 
lation in the cases of aorist participles quoted by the Pro- 
fessor, and in very many others, is merely tolerated, for 
brevity's sake, and especially to accommodate our mother 
tongue, but can have no place in the critical examination of 
the Scriptures. It is false to fact, and misrepresents the 
sacred text. The use to be made of it in the present discus- 
sion is in the interpretation of 1 Pet. iii. 20. No question 
of greater moment than that to be affected by the interpreta- 
tion of this text. It is this : Will all of our race that have 
lived and died, or shall live or die, without the love of the true 
God and Jesus Christ, drop into a hopeless hell ; or is the 
redeeming work of Christ to be carried on in its glory in the 
world of the dead, and to gather a multitude of those else 
lost into the heaven of the saints ? Let us then give no place 
to this illegitimate, or rather unreal " when," a mere nominis 
tnubra, in our investigations. Let our argument be solid 
masonry, that will stand effective for good in this world of 
error, and in the light of eternity approved. 

Next in the order of demonstration is an extended proof 
that uTteid-riaaaL is not an "attributive," but a " circum- 
stantial," participle. Without asserting or denying the dis- 
tinction claimed, let it be called "circumstantial." The 
object of the participle, then, will be, not to give the character 
of those spirits in Hades, — that is implied in their being in 
prison, — but some of the circu?nstances which invested with 
peculiar interest the errand of the Savior to the spirit world. 



APPENDIX. 263 

Let us look at the case under this aspect. The Apostle was 
encouraging Christians to fidelity under persecution. God 
would overrule it for good. We had in Christ a sublime 
example and illustration. He was put to death for his fidel- 
ity. Did he sustain a loss of power for good ? Far from it. 
By the death of the body he was introduced to a higher order 
of constitutional life, and invested with greater power as the 
Savior of the race. While here he was under limitations and 
restrictions as a man in the flesh. But now his constitu- 
tional being was that of the dead, so that his ministry was 
henceforth to be personally and directly upon them — those 
countless myriads, in comparison with whom the living of 
earth are but as the drop of the bucket. Upon that work 
he entered at once after he had dropped this garment of the 
flesh. u To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." And 
upon whom, as hopeful subjects of his gracious influence, did 
he bestow his labors ? He went to the most hopeless of all 
the multitudes of the lost, and of whom in this world it was 
said, " every imagination of the thought of their heart was only 
evil continually," and who were swept from the face of the 
earth.* The writer evidently intended to represent in this 
way the greatness and the glory of the power with which 
Christ was invested for his work in the department of u the 
dead." Christ went in his disembodied state (nvsTufiai^ by 
which is meant the man as he is after death, 1 Pet. iv. 6), 



* We would suggest the inquiry, Does not our interpretation of this text, and, 
in general, the hypothesis of the redemptive work in the future world, shed some 
light upon those hitherto mysterious portions of the Scriptures, the imprecatory 
Psalms, and kindred texts. The sufferings implied in such imprecation? were 
disciplinary, and benevolently inflicted, and would prepare the sufferer for the 
better improvement of the light and opportunities of the future world. And the 
Spirit may have indited them to teach us that, as a necessary sequence of the as- 
sumption of the benevolence of God, and of these Psalms viewed in connection, 
we must accept our doctrine. And if so, then, instead of the assumption in ihe 
page above, that the antediluvians were the most hopeless, the opposite was 
true, and Christ, in the sphere of his post mortem efforts, selected first the most 
hopeful. 



264 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

the divine and the human united as before, and preached the 
gospel to those wretched and degraded men who were unbe- 
lieving even when they saw the ark in a process of construc- 
tion. And further, — so it seemed to occur to the mind of 
the Apostle, — that ark saved but "a few, i. e., eight souls." 
The gospel Ark of Safety, the Ark which the Messiah built, 
— "a clean heart " in his disciples (fianTiafia), — would save 
a multitude, and even those very ones who would not accept 
the protection of the first ark. Here, surely, is "circum- 
stance " enough to fill a " circumstantial participle." I then 
would translate as follows : u Wherefore," i. e., having lived 
and suffered in the flesh, and died, and now taken on this new 
mode of existence, " he went* and preached to the spirits in 
detention, once disobedient, when the long suffering of God 
waited," &c. 

Instances of anarthrous participles qualifying and defin- 
ing as " circumstantial " are numerous, e. g., Matt. xii. 44. 
And having come [to his house], he finds it unoccupied, 
and having been swept and garnished. Mark v. 15 : They 
saw the demoniac sitting, and having been clothed. Acts xxii. 
17 : It happened to me, having returned to Jerusalem, and 
while engaged in prayer in the temple, to be in a trance. Acts 
xv. 25 : It seemed good to us, having become unanimous, to 
send chosen men to you. 

The rendering we have given above of our text is in keep- 
ing with the laws of the Greek language generally, and with 
the particular style of Greek found in the New Testament. 
We are at a loss to understand how the Professor could per- 
suade himself to be slid along so quietly into the acceptance 
of that unconscionable "when." We make no pretension to 
" careful Greek scholarship," but we have been in the habit 
of reading our Greek Testament for more than half a century, 



* The full force of the verb in this passive form is "borne on by a strong im- 
pulse, he went." The Greeks used the passive to imply both the motive and the 
act (nopiveoQau izapa yviaiKd). 



APPENDIX. 265 

and have no doubt that the commonly received opinion of the 
import of the aorist tense is correct, and we cannot, there- 
fore, become a convert to this " when " — still less to the 
method of its introduction to the place assigned it. We in- 
dorse the definitions of the aorist participle quoted by the 
Professor, and think they are the best possible refutation of 
the exegesis we have criticised. 

It may be added that the objection to the use of the word 
" which " in our text as forbidden by the participle as anar- 
throus is without reason. For instance, Acts xv. 26, "Our be- 
loved . . . men that, or w/10, have hazarded their lives." 
(TMXQadEdojxocri, anarthrous.) So in the translation we have 
given on a former page, " Spirits in prison, once disobedient, 
or who were once disobedient." What is the difference ? 
" When " may be used with present participles, as in Eph. 
ii. 1, and "who " with both attributive and circumstantial parti- 
ciples. The instances are numerous in the New Testament 
in which the same grammatical principles are involved, e. g., 
Acts xviii. 2, xv. 26, vii. 59 ; Luke i. 3 ; 1 Pet. ii. 4. 

We do not remember the instance in which the words 
"which the Holy Ghost teacheth," are subjected to so severe 
a strain, if, perhaps, we except the effort of Dr. Hovey to 
prove that Christ, in his death, " suffered the penalty due to 
men for their sins." * We think the time has come for men 
to break away from their bondage to the creeds of the dark 
ages. " Let God be true," whatever fate may overtake the 
creeds. Cease to " do violence" to the Bible. 

And we owe it to truth, and to our convictions of the 
pressing wants of the day in which we live, to say of " Life 
and Death eternal," \ of which the article under review is 
essentially a part, that, with the exception of Renan's " Life 
of Christ," we remember no volume that is so unobservant 
of the principles of a correct exegesis, and that interprets 
the language of Scripture in such utter disregard of its con- 

* " God With Us," p. 130., seq. 
f By Pro£ Bartlettt. 



266 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

nections, and of the circumstances in which, and the object for 
which it was uttered. More than that. Lexicographically 
and grammatically, all is equally lax, and that on words 
and sentences the most cardinal. The pen of its respected 
author wields a mighty power from its official relations, and 
from the relations of the subjects of its immediate influence 
to the Great West of the Church's hopes and prayers. God 
has given that West to "Young America" — a living re- 
ality, and that wants life-imparting^food. We want to think 
of the seminary that prepares ministers for the West, not 
as belonging to the fossihferous regions, but as standing 
distinctly upon the surface, where the light of the sun and 
the showers of heaven make all things alive and prolific — 
where grows and matures for starving men the bre&d of 
life. Young America, whatever may have been true of a rela- 
tively hybernated ancestry, cannot live by sucking dead 
men's bones. They were born to "do with their might," 1 
and to gather in the harvest of a world made ready to their 
love and their zeal. They must live on loaves fresh from 
the hand of Christ. 

The following is an extract from the commentary of the 
late Dean Alford on our text. There are few, if any, higher 
authorities in critical exegesis. 

" With the great majority of commentators, ancient and 
modern. I understand these words to say, that our Lord, in 
his disembodied state, did go to the place of detention of 
departed spirits, and did there announce his work of redemp- 
tion, preach salvation, in fact, to the disembodied spirits of 
those who refused to obey the voice of God when the judg- 
ment of the flood was hanging over them. Why these, 
rather than others, are mentioned — whether merely as a 
sample of the like gracious work on others, or for some 
special reason unimaginable by us, we cannot say. It is 
ours to deal with the plain words of Scripture, and to accept 
its revelations so far as vouchsafed to us. And they are 
vouchsafed to us to the utmost limit of legitimate inference 



APPENDIX. 267 

from revealed facts. That inference every intelligent reader 
will draw from the facts here announced ; it is not purgatory, 
it is not universal restitution ; but it is one which throws 
blessed light on one of the darkest enigmas of the Divine Jus- 
tice ; the cases where the final doom seems infinitely out of 
proportion to the lapse which has incurred it." 



268 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 



D. (Page 190.) 

THE CHURCH AND ITS FUNCTIONS. 

THE idea of The Church is that of men, and all men who 
are governed by benevolence or love to God and love 
to men, acting in their individual capacity, and amenable, as 
such, directly and only to God. This love implies, of course, 
loyalty to the divine government, and a grateful acceptance 
of the grace that is in Christ Jesus. This principle in the 
heart of individuals in a community gives character to society 
in relations domestic, social, commercial, civil. It is a power 
in the world for good. That power is exclusively moral. 
The Church is not an organization. It employs, therefore, 
no corporate action, and can have no authority. Its power 
is the power of Truth and Love. 

The idea of The Church, in the earlier centuries, was 
that of a unit. The elements of an organization that should 
place power in the hands of an ambitious few early made 
their appearance. And these increased till they culminated 
in the Papacy. But when councils were called to express an 
opinion on some matter of importance, they were called from 
all parts of the then Christendom. And their action had 
reference, not to particular local organizations or churches, 
but to the one Church. Hence they were called " ecumeni- 
cal." And when, by and by, portions of The Church were 
disowned by the verdict of such councils, it was not a with- 
drawal of fellowship, but an amputation — the excision of a 
part of the body ; as when the eastern and western were 
separated, or the Nestorian followers of Theodore were 



APPENDIX. 269 

anathematized. And this same idea of the oneness of 
The Church has come down with the Catholics to the 
present time. Their error lies — not in the unity of the 
Church, but in the hierarchical organization, and finally in 
the union of the civil and ecclesiastical functions in the 
government of the Church — the Kingdom of Christ thus be- 
coming "of this world," and its state to be estimated by 
" observation." 

If this is so, then the polity of Congregational churches, 
and still more of other Protestant churches, no less than 
their theology, needs correction. Both have retained to the 
present day enough of the dark ages and of Papacy to dis- 
qualify them for much of the good for which, in their pristine 
purity, they were fitted. There is much that is abnormal, 
and of course hurtful. A conviction of this truth is becoming 
more and more prevalent. Let us, then, go back to first prin- 
ciples. We ask not what have been the opinions or the 
practice of men, but, What saith the Lord ? 

The word rendered in our English version " Church " 
(exydTjala, ecclesia) is from a root which signifies to call out, 
to elect. The Greeks used the word to designate their senate, 
as chosen and honorable. It signifies, then, the called or elect- 
ed of God. It is a collective noun in form, and essentially ab- 
stract for concrete. A parallel case occurs in Rom. xi. 7, 
"The election (concrete, elected) hath obtained it." In 
English we say aristocracy for aristocratic men ; brotherhood 
for the brethren. The word, as used in the New Testament, 
signifies the elected of God, saints, and all such, the entire 
membership among all nations and in both worlds, of the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

The Church is not, and of course cannot be, an organ- 
ized body with corporate functions. Its responsibility and 
its work is that of its members in their individual capacity. 
Its only bond of unity is a common love and loyalty to God, 
faith in Christ, and love to men. Its "fellowship is with the 
Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 



270 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

To The Church, as thus defined, is addressed the Great 
Commission : Preach the gospel to every creature ; disciple 
all nations ; also the promise, " Lo, I am with you always, 
even unto the consummation of the dispensation." To The 
Church was assigned the responsibility and duty of recog- 
nizing and baptizing new members, and all whom God re- 
ceives, regardless of any other distinction ; to love one 
another, and evince this love by sympathy and co-operative 
agency ; and especially to unite in the celebration of the 
dying love of Christ in the Lord's Supper ; to watch over 
each other, and to exhort and to encourage, and if need be, 
to reprove and rebuke in love. In a word, they were to use 
the entire system of the means of grace for their own edifica- 
tion, and for the conversion of the world around them. In 
this way they were to be the leaven in the lump, the light of 
the world. The Church must keep itself pure. If any one 
that was called a brother, forfeited by grossly unchristian con- 
duct the reputation of a Christian, they were to withdraw 
from him as a Christian. They could have no corporate 
action by which he was expelled, for they were not a corpo- 
ration. But they should " withdraw " from him, " avoid " him, 
and "have no company with" him, and thus deliver him 
to Satan. Church administration is purely moral, and ad- 
dresses motives to the moral elements in man in all its pro- 
ceedings. It has no authority, and cannot officially utter, 
ex-cathedra, a sentence of excision based on a vote or corpo- 
rate action. 

The methods of the work of faith and labor of love in The 
Church for itself and the world, took specific form from cir- 
cumstances. At first there was the unerring guidance of in- 
spired Apostles, and afterwards the wisdom that is from above, 
if sought, would lead aright. When charitable distributions 
at Jerusalem were more than the Apostles could attend to, a 
committee of seven was appointed to this work. When any 
one was found possessed of the power of public and effective 
speaking, he was employed in that service. Such was 



APPENDIX. 271 

Stephen, one of the aforesaid committee on charities. When 
the Apostles went abroad, and gained converts to Christ 
among the heathen, they employed similar methods, — 
teachers, helps, governments, &c, for the edifying of the 
body of Christ. These separate and remote groups of disci- 
ples would of course have, as most of their work of faith, local 
duties, and some of these would require concerted action, 
and of course some kind of organic agencies would be im- 
plied, — teachers, committees, moderators, &c. These local 
associations were sometimes called churches, not as organized 
bodies, but as a part of the great unit, The Church. The 
Apostles sometimes address them by this term, yet not as a 
unit, or organized body, but as individuals, and often the con- 
crete synonymes are used. Rom. i. 7 : To all the beloved of 
God, chosen, holy, that are in Rome. 1 Cor. i. 2 : To the 
church ("election," Rom. xi. 7) of God, which is in Corinth, 
beloved in Christ Jesus, elect, holy. 1 Pet. i. 2 : To the elect, 
sojourners in Pontus Galatia, &c. 1 Pet. i. 1 : To those who 
have obtained like precious faith with us. These are equiva- 
lent terms. All these Epistles were alike addressed to the 
church or the elect of God.* The word church is followed 
by plural pronouns, as Acts. viii. 1 : There was a great per- 
secution of the church at Jerusalem, and they were all scat- 
tered. So xi. 22 : Tidings came to the church, and they 
sent, &c. 



* There-are alumni of Yale College in all parts of the world, and as such, are 
bound together by a common tie. Some of these alumni are in the city of New 
York. These may be addrer-sed as such, " To the alumni of Yale College in 
New York." This does not imply any organization. They may have an organi- 
zation for local purposes, e. g., to meet once a year at Delmonico's for fraternal 
intercourse and to glorify their Alma Mater. But whether individuals are mem- 
bers of this club o- not, they are all alike alumni of Yale. So Paul writes to 
"the church." i. e., the elected of God, " in Rome " — not necessarily organized ; 
but addressed by the name common to all the elect of God. 

We speak of the Army of the United States, and we speak of a part of the army 
in general as the Army of the Potomac, or of the West, or the Southern army 
— using the same term for a part as for the whole. 



272 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

If we refer to the action of the local church in any case 
where disapproval or censure is implied, it will be found to 
be not corporate action. Matt, xviii. 15—17, is in point. If 
thy brother trespass against thee, go privately and tell him 
his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, 
thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, 
take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or 
three witnesses all that you say may be confirmed as right 
from their indorsement. But if he shall neglect to hear them, 
tell it to the brotherhood, to any and every brother that may 
be convenient — not, of course, the whole Church, or Kingdom 
of Heaven. If he neglect to hear the church, i. e., disin- 
terested Christian brethren, you have done your duty, and 
have evidence that the spirit of Christ is not in him. There- 
fore," let him be unto thee as a heathen man, and a publican." 
The church has had nothing to do in the matter, except to 
aid the brother in his work of love in reclaiming the erring, 
and thus not in any corporate capacity — which were an ab- 
surdity, as it has no organic existence. Still, as the church, 
i. e., the members in that neighborhood, were made acquaint- 
ed with the facts in the case, they would each do as the 
aggrieved individual did — withdraw from him, and have no 
such fellowship with him as would imply the admission of 
his Christian character. They did not, by a corporate act, 
eject him ; they severally withdrew from him. They "cut " 
his fellowship. It should be remembered that this case was 
previous to the commencement of the Christian Dispensa- 
tion, and could, by "church," refer only to such as had be- 
come friends of Jesus, and believed him to be the Messiah. 
There could have been no Christian " church " before the 
Christian era. 

The above proceeds on the hypothesis that the common 
version, " If thy brother trespass against thee" is correct. 
But the Sinaitic and the Vatican manuscripts, of more weight, 
as authority, than perhaps all others, omit "against thee ; " 
so that it shall read, " If thy brother shall sin (cfy/a^Trjcn/), 



APPENDIX. 273 

go privately Qhtaye), and reprove him, between thee and 
him alone."' The object in this case is not to obtain satisfac- 
tion for personal injury, but to reclaim the erring brother. 
And the preceding context all seems to point to this as the 
true reading. The train of thought is this : " Take tender 
care of all Christ's little ones, and (de, continuative) if one 
professing to be a disciple shall sin, go privately and reprove 
him, 7 Sec. To seek satisfaction for private wrong, is but com- 
paratively an inferior motive. To gain a brother, and to 
save the reputation of religion, is immeasurably higher. And 
this supports our theory. We are, in our individual capacity, 
to withdraw from such. " Let him be to thee as a heathen 
man and a publican." And, by parity of reason, to each and 
every one severally, let him be such. This removes the case 
of the sin of a professor of religion from the judicial corporate 
action of an organization to the sphere of moral influence, as 
at the command of individuals as such. 

So in Rom. xvi. 17 : Mark those that cause division, &c, 
and avoid them. 2 Thess, iii. 6 : We command you, brethren, 
withdraw yourselves (plural) from every brother that work- 
eth disorderly; v. 14: If any obey not cur word, have 
(plural) no company with him. Tit. iii. 10 : A man that is a 
schismatic reject (tiuqultov, get rid of by asking, beg off from), 
or persuade him to retire from connection with you. If", 
however, we retain the aggressive import of our version, it 
should be kept in mind that Paul was instructing Titus as 
an especial agent of the inspired Apostle what he should do 
in the church in Crete as an individual. He was to appoint 
elders in every — not church, but — city. So of what Paul 
says to Timothy. 1 Tim. v. 19: Against an elder receive not 
an accusation but on the testimony of two or three witnesses ; 
it had no reference to corporate church action, but to his 
own. The fifth chapter of f Cor. is adduced as very positive 
in relation to the duty of churches. We think it is positive, 
but in an opposite direction. A Corinthian claiming to be, and 
who, as it afterwards appeared, was a disciple, was practising 
18 



274 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

incest. The Apostle censures the church for permitting it, 
and directs that the scandal be removed. But how ? Not by 
corporate and official action in the form of discipline and ex- 
communication, but by the moral influence which they, as indi- 
vidual Christians, could command. They ought to have been 
grieved — a fact that would have influence upon the erring 
man ; but, instead, were elated, as if prosperous, which was 
virtually to sanction the wrong. He tells them he disap- 
proves. And he tells them then how to express their disap- 
proval. It must not be the work of a few ; they must have a 
mass meeting, and at it report the opinion of the Apostle, and 
also the authority of the Lord Jesus. They must add their 
own emphatic disapproval. They must say to him that they 
cannot keep company (v. 2) with him, no, not to eat. This 
would terminate their fellowship with him, and produce in 
him the feeling that he was not " of them." Not one word is 
said of corporate action, or excommunication, or official termi- 
nation of his membership in the church. Had this been the 
proper method of effecting a separation, Paul, with his 
authority, would have enjoined it in direct terms. No, it is 
the grief and the emphatic disapproval of the great body of 
Christians in the city, backed by the censure of Paul, and 
most of all by the authority of Christ. That the Apostle di- 
rects that they have a public meeting to express their opinion 
and their grief is significant. It were absurd to instruct a 
corporate body to have a meeting of its members before act- 
ing. Such meeting is presupposed in all action. We learn 
in 2 Cor. ii. 6, that the erring brother was reclaimed, and 
Paul attributes it to the fact that the verdict was the verdict 
of very many. There was a moral power in that fact. 

Any one who will read carefully, and with this point in 
mind, the Acts of the Apostles, will see that what is done by 
Christians in any given place is not corporate action. There 
is no vote. "The multitude of the disciples " came together 
to consult, and agreed on some course. This was the case 
where the committee on charities were appointed (Acts vi. 



APPENDIX. 275 

1-6). So when a delegation was to be sent from Jerusalem 
to Antioch, the apostles, and elders, and the church sent 
"self-elected men" (middle voice), i. e., volunteers of their 
own company. All was informal. There was no corporate 
authoritative action. This coming together of the disciples 
was what, in modern phrase, is called "public meetings," 
whose object is to express public sentiment. They have a 
temporary organization, and pass resolutions. But there is 
no governmental authority in their action. It is simply the 
influence of opinion. So if many such assemblies should 
send delegates to a national convention, the same would be 
true. Such is the church and its meetings. Any one who 
will read Luke's account of the meetings of disciples with 
care, will see this to be the fact. See Acts vi. 1-6 ; xi. 1-18 ; 
xv. 1— 31. Also 1 Cor. v. 1-13 ; 2 Cor. i. 23 ; ii. 11. 

In the sacred writings, such designaiions as church, be- 
lievers, brethren, Christians, saved, elect, are equivalent 
terms The Lord added to the church saved men daily 
(Acts ii. 4/). The number of the disciples was multiplied 
(vi. 1). Much people was added to the Lord (xi. 24). The 
Congregationalist tells us how many "joined the church," 
and the Baptist, how many " were baptized." And both 
alike, but especially the former, find in Luke's history not 
the least support to the theory evinced in their phraseology. 
The Lord, and not a committee, added to the church ; and 
they were saved men ((Jw^ojuivovg). That is, by becoming 
such, which was the Lord's work, and not by baptism, or the 
vote of a committee, they became members of the church. 
Who was added to the Lord was added to the church, to the 
disciples, to the saints, &c. But we are told of the visible 
church. There is no other visibility to the church than that 
which consists in a holy life, known and read of all men. 
The man who, in a village prayer meeting, tells to his neigh- 
bors the wonderful illumination of the Spirit, his love to the 
Savior, and his purpose, through grace, to serve, him, and in- 
vites others to do the same, is a " visible " Christian. So he 



276 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

who, with a humble, cheerful trust in Christ, comes to the 
" Lord's table," or he who is baptized, and, in general, all 
whose holy lives evince the control of religious principle, are 
"visible " disciples. Membership in a modern "church " is 
very far from furnishing visibility to Christian character. 

We come, then, to the conclusion that the term " church," 
when applied to the saints in given localities, is but a term by 
which these disciples are indicated as a part of The Church. 
The term does not necessarily imply any local organization. 
If there be such, it must be merely a club, having reference 
to the accomplishment of local objects, and cannot affect the 
relations of the individual members of it to The Church. 
Membership in the club, or non-membership, or expulsion 
from it even, affects not these general relations, or the duties 
or the privileges that they imply, as above stated. The 
amenableness of the members of such club must be confined 
to the things which they pledge themselves to do by corpo- 
rate action. The club is virtually a copartnership for certain 
ends. Non-fulfilment of the compact may forfeit or termi- 
nate membership. The non-fulfilment would not necessarily 
implicate moral or Christian character. 

The Church has no corporate character, and cannot, 
therefore, have any corporate and official authority over its 
members. The same must be true of the several parts of 
The Church in their several localities. The sole legitimate 
official power of The Church, and of its parts as such, is 
moral influence. Christians may judge of character, they are 
bound to do so, and to treat men accordingly— extend to 
them, or withhold their Christian fellowship. The Savior 
taught his disciples how to judge of Christian character, and 
thus of the fact, or otherwise, of membership in his kingdom. 
For instance, a man might be a disciple, and yet be the sub- 
ject of certain imperfections ; but there were sins that were 
decisive, and forbade the hypothesis of Christian character, 
e. g., blasphemy against the Holy Ghost could not be over- 
looked in the present or coming dispensation (Matt. xii. 
31-33)- 



APPENDIX. 277 

In train of what we have said, we recapitulate, and infer as 
follows : — 

1. Membership in a local organization of Christians cannot 
affect the membership of the individual in The Church. 
Citizenship in the city 'of New York does not affect my citi- 
zenship in the United States. The duties, rights, privileges 
of the latter are mine still. Paul at Jerusalem was a Roman 
citizen. 

2. The principles of such local organizations must not con- 
flict with the great constitutional principles of The Church, 
— as of a State in the United States. 

3. Members of such local organizations are amenable to 
the same only in particulars that are peculiar to them, and 
not in particulars that are included in general membership in 
The Church. They are amenable only for the performance 
of the particular work of the local organization. The corpo- 
rate action of such local church cannot relate to anything 
else, e. g., membership in The Church, and a right to its 
privileges, obligations, duties. 

4. " Excommunication," as a formal official act, is in no 
sort a Christian duty. Local churches cannot do it. The 
Church has no formal organization — synods and councils 
to the contrary notwithstanding. The Church, in its several 
members, in their individual capacity as Christians, may 
" withdraw," or "have no fellowship with," may treat "as a 
heathen man and a publican," any one who forfeits the repu- 
tation of a genuine disciple. 

The conditions on which persons are to be recognized as 
members of The Church, are very explicitly stated by the 
Apostle (Rom. 14). Notwithstanding errors and imperfec- 
tions, if a Christian, he is to be received," for God hath received 
him ; " and ihe Kingdom of Heaven is in him, and of him, if, 
"in righteousness, and peace, and joy, in a holy spirit, he 
serves God." This can mean no less than that every Chris- 
tian is to be recognized as a member of The Church. Much 
more then, being a member, he may not be abandoned, or, in 
modern phrase, " excommunicated." 



278 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

5. What is commonly called " church discipline," is entirely 
without authority in the New Testament. " Discipline '" is a 
term of broader import than " excommunication." It em- 
braces chastisement or reformatory punishment. And it is a 
singular fact, that the almost only method is to " suspend," 
or forbid the privilege of coming to the Lord's table — an 
act which the Savior has enjoined as a duty upon every dis- 
ciple as such. Punish a Christian by forbidding him to do 
his duty ! To be consistent, he should be forbidden to attend 
public worship on the Sabbath, or the pra\er meeting of the 
church, or to pray in his family ! There is scarcely anything 
in the practice or pretensions of the Romish church more 
monstrous than this pretended ownership of the Lord's 
table, and granting or forbidding approach to it by a disciple 
of the dying Lord. 

Something of the character of the theory of Church Disci- 
pline may be inferred from the working of the principle. By 
a reference to the statistics of the Congregational churches 
in our land, we find that a startling proportion of the cases 
of excommunication are in groups, showing that the church is 
in a quarrel. A large number are excommunicated, and at 
the same time many are dismissed. Such numbers as 10, 
J 3> l S-> l 9i 34? 4 1 ? & c -> represent the excommunicated; while 
these and the dismissed are 1 9 -}- 27 := 46 in a church of 2 1 3 ; 
then 13+ ioz=23 in a church of but 14 ; then 41 -|~2oz=:6i in 
a church of 432 ; then 94-41 = 50 in a church of 1 16 ; then 
10 -f- 6 in a church of 52, &c. Vide Congregational Quarterly, 
January, 1874. This is not " withdrawing " from those who 
forfeit the Christian character. It is the tyranny of a ma- 
jority in a quarrel. 

And any one who has had as much occasion as the writer 
to aid in the settlement of church difficulties, must have 
learnt that these alienations originate in most cases in what 
is called church discipline. The friends of the excommuni- 
cated are aggrieved, and often disgusted, by the action of the 
church. Families and relatives become parties, and often 
bitter in their alienations. 



APPENDIX. 279 

We know that good things may be perverted, even the 
preaching of the gospel. But we can see in this disciplinary 
process a tendency to these evils. It is authoritative and 
recorded censure and degradation, and it goes down on the 
records of the church to future generations. And then it 
proceeds on the hypothesis of ability to judge of the motives 
of men who may be Christians, and punishing them for the 
same — a prerogative that belongs to God alone. 

6. Local churches, while they may spread, have no owner- 
ship of the Lord's table, or right to exclude from it any disci- 
ple of Christ. And who administers at the table must ask 
"all" who love the Lord Jesus Christ to come and share in 
the fruitions. And each man must judge for himself of his 
duties. " Let a man examine himself, and so, that is, after 
self-examination, let him eat." 

7. Membership in a local church may rightly depend for 
its commencement upon the vote of its previous members, 
but such member may resign his membership at his option, 
so that he does not violate business obligations. He does 
not, by that resignation, relinquish his membership in The 
Church, or retire from its duties or its privileges. A local 
church is, in its organization, much like a " Young Men's 
Christian Association." Such association may have its rules 
of action, and these may differ in different cities from different 
circumstances. In such association every member can re- 
sign his membership at his option. Even if we take the 
common theory of church discipline, why not allow the man 
who is guilty of that which is inconsistent with membership 
to retire by resigning his membership ? What good is gained 
by the process of a formal and public trial and examination 
of witnesses ? All that the church can do, after proving the 
wrong, is to excommunicate him. If he retires voluntarily, 
he admits that the principles of the church forbid his sin. It 
is not, then, to protect its own reputation that the church dis- 
ciplines the man. The only reason must be that penalty is 
to be inflicted. Is punishment for moral offences a function 



280 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

of the church of Christ? The question needs only to be 
asked. That belongs to the Searcher of hearts. 

But if these are the simple facts of primitive Christianity, 
whence all this ecclesiastical organization ? Congregational- 
ism and Episcopacy, and all the hieracny of the English and 
the Catholic church, and to crown all, the Papacy with its 
infallibility, and its hold of the keys by which the gates of 
heaven are closed or opened, — all are alike the offspring of 
human ambition. Those committees and specific forms 
of agency and responsibility, confided to individuals in the 
primitive churches, gratified the love of distinction and van- 
ity, and their importance would be magnified by those whose 
they were, and perpetuated. In the days of the Apostles 
even, we find the beginning of this development in Diotrephes, 
who loved to have the pre-eminence. 

The spirit of reformation, from the days of Wicklifle, and 
especially of Luther, has been engaged in correcting these 
disorders, and removing these abnormal elements of ecclesias- 
tical life. But those who were trained under their influence, 
and regarded them as the sacred facts of the church, would 
be unable to conceive of the simplicity of a pure church 
organization and life. Congregationalism is in advance of 
all others, yet waits to take one more step, and thus attain 
the normal and primitive condition of the Church of God. 
Christ's kingdom " is not of this world." His church has 
no corporate government, and no judicial functions. Its only 
power is the power of truth and of love. 

I cannot close this article without a solitary remark. The 
effort of the present day is to bring all denominations into 
loving fellowship and harmonious co-operation. It can be 
done only by accepting our theory. There are now an end- 
less number and variety of churches, each with the power of 
the keys. They claim to admit to the church, and reject or 
expel from the church, and the privileges of the sacraments, 
on their individual responsibility. Between such integers 
there may be a mechanical but not a chemical combination. 



APPENDIX. 28l 

There will be, there can be, no essential unity. The other 
denominations complain of the Baptists as " close commun- 
ion." Themselves are as much so. Subscription to a human 
form of words they all make the condition, in case of a recog- 
nized Christian, of admission to the sacraments — of obedi- 
ence to a positive command of the Savior to every disciple. 
Of such churches, the prayer of the Savior, " that they all 
may be one," can never be answered. 

We are aware that the idea of reducing the Church of God 
to a mere class of persons, who are the disciples of Christ, 
and as such governed by Christian principle, without organi- 
zation, or the possibility of corporate action or authority, 
would seem to strip the church of much of its power. Many 
feel, in relation to ecclesiastical organization, much as did the 
Jews in relation to their civil theocratic organization and re- 
ligious ceremonial. But the moral " power of God to salva- 
tion," is like the forces of Nature that so silently, yet so 
perfectly, effect the changes in the material universe. Chris- 
tianity is the " leaven in the lump." It " comes not with 
observation." To one who has thought much of moral forces 
and their results, there is nothing more sublime and effective 
in the universe. " The Cross of Christ ! " It is a synonyme 
for moral omnipotence. And in proportion as increases the 
faith and the spirituality of the church, will be its reliance 
and its rest in the great idea. It will be all in all as the hope 
of the individual believer, and as his hope for the salvation 
of the world. And when the church shall lay aside all its 
Popish organizations and its corporate authority, — all "of 
this world," — and so live that Christ shall live in them, and 
they all shall be "one" in Christ, they will find "a new 
heaven and a new earth," and, " behold the tabernacle of God 
will be with men." 

We are not without an illustration of the power of a 
"class" of men unorganized. There is in our own, and in 
other lands, an educated class. Without organization as a 
class, they are yet of one heart and one mind. They have 



282 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

local organizations for specific objects, as school-houses, 
academies, colleges. And the effect is, that the community 
is fast becoming like themselves. Just suppose this class to 
organize itself, its local associations to admit members by 
examination, very much of its power were gone. To run a 
line, over which, with form and ceremony, and responsible 
pledges for the future, and after examination each one must 
pass into the " educated class," would shut out a multitude 
who now, unconsciously to themselves, pass into' this class, to 
reap its advantages and exert its influence for good. Red 
tape ! It is, indeed, a necessity in civil and military relations, 
but it strangles every moral institution. And, as in intellec- 
tual culture, our theory makes an easy ascending grade, with 
no particular point of difficulty, so in religion. If Christians 
built churches, supported religious teachers, manned prayer 
meetings, and administered the sacraments, and invited any 
and all who felt it their duty and privilege to co-operate and 
share with them, it would be found, as a means of grace, a 
power now unknown. At every communion service the 
question would arise in every heart, " Shall I partake ? I 
may, if I wish, and without ceremony ; and if afterwards I 
shall think it best not to repeat the act, there will be no penal 
trial and excommunication." The first step would be taken, 
and the way would be prepared for another, and the crisis 
would be passed. There are multitudes in our community 
who need but some well-defined, and not hazardous step,* as 
a duty and a privilege to be taken, and they would take it. 
And as they passed, or might pass, into the " educated class " 
almost unconsciously, so they would find themselves in the 
"religious class," in other words, The Church, and would 
find its ways pleasantness. 

To this state the Church will come. The mouth of the 

* The Church, in this respect, — and we say it with all seriousness, — is like a 
wire mouse- trap ; you can get in, but can get out only as you are slaughtered and 
thrown out, — a fact that deters many not only from the Church, but from the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 



APPENDIX. 283 

Lord hath spoken it. And results of good and glory will 
come in train, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man. 

Postscript. — We have time, just as our manuscript is 
passing into the hands of the printer, to say a word in rela- 
tion to the Brooklyn Council and its doings. 

We confess a feeling of humiliation as we have read the pa- 
pers relating to this case. It appears that a certain member 
of the Plymouth Church had decided that it was no longer a 
privilege or his duty to attend worship with this church, and 
of course to be a member of the same. Suppose him to have 
at once given notice of the fact, this church could have only 
entered on its records, " Brother T. T., having gone out 
from us, Voted, that he be no longer of us." What else 
could they have done ? To excommunicate him were an ab- 
surdity, for he was already out. And it were to turn him out 
because he had turned himself out. If, after his going out 
he had slandered the church or its pastor, the church could 
do nothing about it, for he was not amenable to it. But he 
did not notiny the church — which was his fault alone. Does 
the ignorance of the church alter the fact ? He is not a 
member, and has acted on that assumption. If the church 
censures him in the case, it must be for neglect to notify the 
church of his withdrawal. To have withdrawn, was not, on 
the preceding hypothesis, censurable, for had it been known 
properly it would have been accepted, and his non-member- 
ship have been recognized, and their responsibility have 
ceased in relation to him. 

To illustrate. A man commits murder, then goes and 
hangs himself. The fact of the murder becomes known, and 
the evidence of his guilt is complete. In the attempt to 
arrest him, and bring him to trial, his corpse is found. Must 
the evidence against him be brought before the court, and he 
be condemned to be hung ? 

And this brings us directly to the point. If a member of 



284 THE BIBLE REGAINED. 

a church resigns his membership, what has the church to do 
about it ? What can it do ? The only penalty (?) at the 
command of a church is to excommunicate. But the offen- 
der has excommunicated himself. What, then, we ask, could 
the Plymouth Church have done with Mr. T. other than was 
done ? 

And it should be remarked that when a member thus re- 
tires from a church, that church is not only no longer respon- 
sible for his conduct, but its reputation is not affected by it. 

But it is said membership in a church implies a " cove- 
nant," and the member is responsible to the church ; and 
when he violates that covenant, and leaves the church, he com- 
mits sin. True ; but what can the church do about it ? Many 
in the community sin by not joining the church. Shall the 
church discipline them, and forbid them to join ? 

We see the falsity of the theory that the covenant of a man 
with a local church when he joins it, is or should be as com- 
prehensive as the covenant of this man with the Savior at 
conversion. Would the Savior delegate such a function to 
men ? Would he assign to his church an impossible duty ? 
Membership in The Church, which exists only and always 
when " the Lord adds to the church the saved," implies a 
covenant all comprehensive, and that is everlasting. And the 
amenableness of the man who enters into it is to One who is 
competent to administer in the case. The assumption by 
local churches, so called, that membership in them is the 
condition of the rights or the duties of membership in The 
Church, and that excommunication from such churches sets 
aside these rights or these duties, is essentially the same as 
"" the power of the keys " in the Catholic church. The as- 
sumption of the right in churches to excommunicate its 
members, and by that act to shut them away from the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper, is one of those monstrous things 
which the light of the present day should correct. 

If we understand the matter, the great work of the Brook- .- 
lyn Council has been to decide on the method in which this 



APPENDIX. 285 

factitious duty is to be discharged. As we read its delibera- 
tions, we were reminded of the philosophers who were engaged 
in explaining how the weight of a tub of water was not in- 
creased by putting a live fish into it. After various theories 
had been propounded, it occurred to one of the wise men to 
inquire, " Is it a fact ? " The question as it now stands be- 
fore the churches of our land, and as presented by the illus- 
trious churches in Brooklyn, is in principle this, — How can 
a man that has gone out from a church, be turned out by 
the church ? And next, shall we withdraw fellowship from 
such church if this impossible problem is not solved to our 
satisfaction ? 

It is among the hopeful signs of the times that the theory 
of Christian union is engaging the attention of the Christian 
world. The effort is to throw minor differences into the 
shade, and magnify the great fact of a common love to a 
common Savior and his cause. What, then, means this 
obtrusion upon the grieved attention of Christians of this 
" mint-and-anise " question by churches that God, in his 
providence, has " set upon a hill " ? What this arraigning of 
a church larger, and not less active than any other in the 
land, and whose pastor is exerting an influence for good 
not less than that of any other man upon our planet ? 



